For Am Law 100 firms, 2014 was a surprisingly dramatic year. It saw a swath of mergers—most notably between Locke Lord and Edwards Wildman Palmer, and Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs—and a major dissolution, of Bingham McCutchen, which in last year’s survey was the market’s 37th-largest law firm by revenue. (The bulk of Bingham’s lawyers, including 226 partners, were picked up by Morgan Lewis.) There was notable change at both the top and the bottom of The Am Law 100. Four new firms joined the rankings this year, at the expense of four others, while at the other end, The Am Law 100 has a new leader: Latham & Watkins.
Latham is only the fourth firm to reach the top of The Am Law’s gross revenue rankings, which since their inception in 1985 have been perennially dominated by Baker & McKenzie, DLA Piper and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. (Baker & McKenzie, DLA Piper and Skadden this year placed second, third and fourth, respectively.) Latham displaced DLA Piper thanks to a more than 14 percent increase in revenue, to $2.6 billion, the most revenue ever accrued by a single Am Law 100 law firm. In Robert Dell’s last year in charge of Latham—after 20 years as chair, Dell retired and was replaced in January by William Voge—the firm’s revenue per lawyer (RPL) jumped 12.2 percent, to nearly $1.25 million, while its average profits per partner (PPP) rose 16.5 percent, to $2.9 million. Latham’s net income, meanwhile, grew 21 percent, to $1.33 billion—an annual increase of $228 million, which is more than the entire profit pool of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, The Am Law 100′s 31st-largest firm by revenue. Adjusting for inflation, Latham’s total net income is now nearly seven times higher than it was when Dell first started as chair in 1994.
