Head count and gross revenue both fell nearly 10 percent last year at Schiff Hardin, according to preliminary ALM data, marking the second straight year the Chicago-based Am Law 200 firm saw meaningful lawyer departures and corresponding drops in revenue.

Schiff Hardin's head count last year of 254 lawyers and revenue of $200 million were down 19.6 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively, since fiscal 2015. Factoring out a $32 million contingent fee the firm earned in 2015, revenue has fallen about 18 percent during the past two years.

On account of the firm's equity partner ranks dropping nearly 18 percent to 65 partners, Schiff Hardin was able to raise profits per partner by 4.7 percent, to $886,000. The firm's equity partnership has shrunk about 31 percent in the past two years.

Schiff Hardin declined to comment on its year-end financials beyond a brief statement from managing partner Marci Eisenstein, who was elected the firm's first female leader in 2015.

“As part of our ongoing strategy to further strengthen our business, we are very pleased to report a five percent increase in our profits per partner in 2017, and the addition of six lateral partners this past year,” Eisenstein said. “Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on expanding our marquee practices and recruiting top legal talent to support them.”

The firm has made at least three lateral hires since the beginning of the year.

Those include Mauricio Beugelmans, a San Francisco-based litigator who represents financial institutions and formerly owned his own law firm; former Illinois Executive Inspector General Maggie Hickey, who will lead the firm's white collar department from Chicago; and Sarah Fitts, a former partner at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York and the new co-chair of Schiff Hardin's energy and natural resources group.

The tumult at Schiff Hardin began in early 2016 when 22 partners, including the firm's former chairman Robert Riley, managing partner Ronald Safer and diversity committee leader Patricia Holmes, exited to start their own firm called Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila.

In February 2017, Schiff Hardin shuttered its Dallas office, with the bulk of its lawyers in the city moving to Dorsey & Whitney. At the time, Eisenstein said the move was a “win-win” for Schiff Hardin and its former lawyers in Dallas, as the firm focused on business decisions that would help it retain its independence.

In July, Schiff Hardin lost Regina Speed-Bost, the chair of its energy group and coordinating partner for the firm's office in Washington, D.C. Speed-Bost joined Reed Smith alongside former Schiff Hardin counsel Debra Ann Palmer. Schiff Hardin did snag trusts and estates partner Susan Bart from Sidley Austin last summer amid an exodus of partners from the latter firm's practice in that area.

For its part, Riley Safer has grown quickly since spinning out of Schiff Hardin, now numbering roughly 70 lawyers in four cities. In July, Riley Safer hired nearly a dozen lawyers from Bryan Cave in Chicago led by that office's managing partner, Joseph McCoy.