Data in Detail: Leading the Way
The May/June 2023 issue of The Practice explores how law firms think about and implement strategy. The lead article, written by senior fellow Robert Couture, uses Am Law 100 data from 2022 and 2016 to map movement in the industry. Couture maps law firms using two metrics: revenue per lawyer (RPL) and lawyer headcount, dividing firms into four quadrants: Northwest (high RPL, low headcount), Northeast (high RPL, high headcount), Southwest (low RPL, low headcount), and Southeast (low RPL, high headcount). This analysis provides a certain outlook into the industry. To drill down further into the data, tables can be found below that indicate which firms fall in which quadrants.
2022 Am Law 100 – Primary Axes of Differentiation
+ or – 1,750 lawyers | + or – $1,165,000 RPL
Northwest Quadrant – 44 Firms
<1,750 lawyers | >$1,165,000 RPL
| Law Firm | Lawyers | RPL |
|---|---|---|
| Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom | 1,644 | $ 1,838,000 |
| Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher | 1,538 | $ 1,613,000 |
| Ropes & Gray | 1,372 | $ 1,950,000 |
| Goodwin Procter | 1,315 | $ 1,501,000 |
| Cooley | 1,267 | $ 1,568,000 |
| King & Spalding | 1,261 | $ 1,450,000 |
| Covington & Burling | 1,217 | $ 1,234,000 |
| Weil, Gotshal & Manges | 1,180 | $ 1,573,000 |
| McDermott Will & Emery | 1,177 | $ 1,415,000 |
| Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 1,163 | $ 1,913,000 |
| Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton | 1,051 | $ 1,350,000 |
| Davis Polk & Wardwell | 1,025 | $ 1,923,000 |
| Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | 1,008 | $ 1,836,000 |
| Morrison & Foerster | 996 | $ 1,239,000 |
| Paul Hastings | 979 | $ 1,606,000 |
| Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati | 963 | $ 1,388,000 |
| Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe | 960 | $ 1,371,000 |
| Dechert | 928 | $ 1,446,000 |
| Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan | 900 | $ 1,839,000 |
| Willkie Farr & Gallagher | 871 | $ 1,401,000 |
| Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld | 863 | $ 1,414,000 |
| Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr | 863 | $ 1,503,000 |
| Winston & Strawn | 846 | $ 1,364,000 |
| Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton | 839 | $ 1,198,000 |
| Alston & Bird | 829 | $ 1,236,000 |
| Milbank | 819 | $ 1,660,000 |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | 797 | $ 2,215,000 |
| Debevoise & Plimpton | 788 | $ 1,687,000 |
| Shearman & Sterling | 727 | $ 1,391,000 |
| Proskauer Rose | 713 | $ 1,639,000 |
| Vinson & Elkins | 692 | $ 1,318,000 |
| Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy | 680 | $ 1,185,000 |
| O’Melveny & Myers | 670 | $ 1,360,000 |
| Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman | 651 | $ 1,200,000 |
| Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson | 581 | $ 1,636,000 |
| Cravath, Swaine & Moore | 492 | $ 2,035,000 |
| Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo | 488 | $ 1,206,000 |
| Fenwick & West | 427 | $ 1,692,000 |
| Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft | 413 | $ 1,474,000 |
| Steptoe & Johnson | 347 | $ 1,218,000 |
| Schulte Roth & Zabel | 342 | $ 1,378,000 |
| Fish & Richardson | 325 | $ 1,437,000 |
| Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel | 324 | $ 1,386,000 |
| Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | 288 | $ 3,860,000 |
| Cahill Gordon & Reindel | 284 | $ 1,818,000 |
Northeast Quadrant – 5 Firms
>1,750 lawyers | >$1,165,000 RPL
| Law Firm | Lawyers | RPL |
|---|---|---|
| Latham & Watkins | 3,078 | $ 1,784,000 |
| Kirkland & Ellis | 3,025 | $ 1,997,000 |
| White & Case* | 2,464 | $ 1,165,000 |
| Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | 1,992 | $ 1,294,000 |
| Sidley Austin | 1,893 | $ 1,477,000 |
Southwest Quadrant – 43 Firms
<1,750 lawyers | <$1,165,000 RPL
| Law Firm | Lawyers | RPL |
|---|---|---|
| Mayer Brown | 1,748 | $ 1,053,000 |
| K&L Gates | 1,698 | $ 694,000 |
| Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith | 1,613 | $ 448,000 |
| Reed Smith | 1,573 | $ 913,000 |
| Squire Patton Boggs | 1,438 | $ 791,000 |
| Holland & Knight | 1,393 | $ 1,007,000 |
| Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner | 1,252 | $ 701,000 |
| Perkins Coie | 1,124 | $1,028,000 |
| Troutman Pepper | 1,121 | $ 918,000 |
| Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath | 1,093 | $ 904,000 |
| Foley & Lardner | 1,021 | $ 1,004,000 |
| Littler Mendelson | 986 | $ 668,000 |
| Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani | 957 | $ 505,000 |
| Baker & Hostetler | 932 | $ 897,000 |
| McGuireWoods | 921 | $ 1,035,000 |
| Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer | 902 | $ 1,145,000 |
| Jackson Lewis | 902 | $ 610,000 |
| Seyfarth Shaw | 893 | $ 881,000 |
| Fox Rothschild | 882 | $ 737,000 |
| Womble Bond Dickinson | 880 | $ 591,000 |
| Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart | 873 | $ 670,000 |
| Polsinelli | 868 | $ 804,000 |
| Hunton Andrews Kurth | 803 | $ 1,033,000 |
| Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough | 778 | $ 875,000 |
| Venable | 743 | $ 965,000 |
| Husch Blackwell | 726 | $ 657,000 |
| Duane Morris | 723 | $ 825,000 |
| Cozen O’Connor | 701 | $ 834,000 |
| Baker Botts | 673 | $ 1,074,000 |
| Barnes & Thornburg | 658 | $ 875,000 |
| Katten Muchin Rosenman | 631 | $ 1,132,000 |
| Akerman | 622 | $ 794,000 |
| Taft Stettinius & Hollister | 600 | $ 692,000 |
| Ballard Spahr | 587 | $ 801,000 |
| Blank Rome | 573 | $ 956,000 |
| Locke Lord | 567 | $ 900,000 |
| Davis Wright Tremaine | 562 | $ 859,000 |
| Crowell & Moring | 546 | $ 948,000 |
| Haynes and Boone | 545 | $ 884,000 |
| Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton | 544 | $ 932,000 |
| Nixon Peabody | 538 | $ 980,000 |
| Dorsey & Whitney | 498 | $ 853,000 |
| Jenner & Block | 419 | $ 1,111,000 |
| Loeb & Loeb | 418 | $ 1,026,000 |
Southeast Quadrant – 7 Firms
>1,750 lawyers | <$1,165,000 RPL
| Law Firm | Lawyers | RPL |
|---|---|---|
| Baker McKenzie | 4,795 | $ 652,000 |
| DLA Piper | 4,028 | $ 862,000 |
| Norton Rose Fulbright | 3,084 | $ 681,000 |
| Hogan Lovells | 2,532 | $ 1,029,000 |
| White & Case* | 2,464 | $ 1,165,000 |
| Jones Day | 2,406 | $ 1,017,000 |
| Greenberg Traurig | 2,209 | $ 907,000 |
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