For Steptoe & Johnson LLP, 2013 was a mixed bag. Revenue was flat at $365 million, profits per partner fell $75,000 to $905,000, but revenue per lawyer climbed slightly to $900,000.
Notably, the firm’s profit margin dropped from 40 percent in 2012 to 34 percent in 2013. Firm chairman Philip West said one key to understanding the decline is a large contingency fee that the firm received in 2011. That year, Steptoe got about $15 million for a long-running case in which the firm represented American prisoners of war held in Iraq.
