Despite—or, perhaps more accurately, because of—its rocky start, 2020 ended up being a banner year for Big Law financials. The pandemic forced law firms to cut costs in a major way, but there was a lot more than that behind firms' soaring profits.

In this week's episode, Gina Passarella, ALM's editor-in-chief, global legal brands, interviews American Lawyer executive editor Ben Seal and ALM Legal Intelligence senior analyst James Willer about some of the key findings from this year's Am Law 100 rankings with regard to profitability. In addition to delving into the factors that helped many firms achieve mega margins in 2020, the trio also discusses the common traits shared by some of the standout firms in this year's rankings and looks at whether we could see a repeat of that profit performance in 2021.