The Global 100 continues its tentative postrecession recovery. Driven by stabilizing economies, resurgent transactional markets and the continued expansion by law firms into new markets across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, the world’s 100 largest legal businesses collectively had a solid, if unspectacular, year in 2013.
Aggregate Global 100 revenue rose 4.3 percent last year, to a record $88.7 billion—11 percent higher than the group managed at the height of the boom in 2008. Global 100 firms now collectively employ more than 112,000 lawyers and 22,000 equity partners—annual increases of 3.9 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively. And in news that will be welcomed by equity partners, if perhaps not their clients, average profit per equity partner (PPP) grew 5.4 percent, to $1.6 million, another Global 100 record.
