O'Melveny & Myers posted modest gains in revenue and partner profits in 2017, with profits per partner exceeding $2 million. The firm's top line growth cooled somewhat from the two prior years even as head count continued to expand last year.

Gross revenue at the Los Angeles-based firm increased 1.7 percent, reaching $738 million in 2017. Profits per partner saw a 3.1 percent increase from 2016, reaching $2.01 million. Net income dropped by 1.6 percent, from $340.9 million to $335.4 million last year.

Revenue per lawyer was relatively flat at $1.12 million, just a hair below O'Melveny's record year in 2016.

“We had some major litigation matters that we settled or tried to verdict at the end of 2016, and some corporate matters that either closed or didn't proceed,” said Bradley Butwin, O'Melveny's New York-based chair, explaining the moderate growth last year. “So the first three-and-a-half months was a period where we were replenishing the pipeline, and many new matters across the firm then kept us extremely busy for the rest of the year.”

Butwin said the firm's year-end inventory was up by 13 percent last year. Some of the inventory has already converted to cash at the beginning of the year, which could contribute to greater revenue growth this year, he added.

“We got really busy a little bit later in the year than we sometimes do,” he said.

Butwin said the firm has continued its momentum in both litigation and corporate work into this year. For example, O'Melveny is lead trial counsel for AT&T and Time Warner in the Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to block the companies' $85 billion merger, which is headed for trial March 19. On the corporate side, the firm's lawyers represent Puerto Rico's fiscal advisory agency in the financial restructuring of the island's debt obligations, a bankruptcy-like process to help the government grapple with more than $70 billion in public-sector debt.

Just Friday, the firm said it had been tapped to advise longtime deal client Microsemi in its $10.15 billion sale to Microchip Technology.

Butwin cited strong performance in a number of other areas in which O'Melveny has invested in over the last few years, including its new sports law practice, its infrastructure group, and other practices such as health care, driverless cars, Fintech, cybersecurity and California water rights.

O'Melveny expanded its total lawyer head count last year from 648 to 660, including at least nine lateral partner hires. The firm, which says it is structured as a single-tier partnership, had three fewer partners overall in 2017.

Notable hires last year included former DLA Piper corporate partner Charles “Chuck” Baker and former Foley corporate partner Irwin Raij, who now co-chair the firm's sports industry group from its base in New York, and Steve Bunnell, former general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who became co-chair of O'Melveny's data security and privacy practice in Washington, D.C. Competition law partner Philip Monaghan joined from the Hong Kong Competition Commission, and in San Francisco, the firm brought back ex-prosecutor and former counsel Damali Taylor as a partner in its white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice.

New partners are categorized as fixed income partners for their first year, Butwin said, which partly explains why nonequity compensation almost doubled from $5.66 million in 2016 to about $11 million in 2017.

In February, O'Melveny added three more new partners, David M. Smith, Robert Graffum and Nicolai Schwarz-Gondek, to its M&A practice in Century City, California.

According to data provided by the firm, O'Melveny's Century City office saw a decline of 24 lawyers over the four years from 2013 to 2017, from 80 to 56, though head count there now stands at 67 lawyers. The Los Angeles office also declined by three lawyers within the four year period, to 156 lawyers, but L.A. head count has since climbed to 179, according to the firm.

In New York, the firm said, head count since 2013 grew by 44 lawyers to 142 in 2017, and now stands at 159 lawyers.

“We work as one O'Melveny across multiple offices. We don't staff cases office by office but by expertise,” said Butwin, regarding the numbers. He added that the firm does not have a plan to open a new office in the near future.

“Our strategy is always focused on what the clients need,” said Butwin. “When we focus on regions and strategy, it is always based on what our clients are telling us, and what we are hearing from the clients is that they are pleased with what we offer and where we are.”

Note: This story has been updated to reflect attorney head count figures for Century City, L.A. and New York provided by the firm.