Matthew Feeney, chair of Snell & Wilmer (Courtesy photo)

Mid-market law firm Snell & Wilmer has reported modest financial growth in fiscal year 2018, driven by affordable legal services in offices throughout the western United States.

The firm's gross revenue in the past fiscal year edged up slightly to $262 million, up from the $260 million reported last year. Profits per equity partner increased 7.5 percent to $860,000 from $800,000, a gain partly attributable to the fact that two of the firm's 87 equity partners left, resulting in slightly more work and profits to distribute among the remaining 85.

A Snell & Wilmer representative attributed the modest financial gains to the firm's presence throughout the western U.S. The firm has offices in Salt Lake City, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Reno, Boise, Albuquerque, Tuscon, and Phoenix, in addition to Washington, D.C., Snell & Wilmer has one office in Mexico.

“We do work all over the country, but our cost structure is significantly lower than those of our peer firms. That has allowed us to take on and make money on work that some firms can't touch,” the representative said.

Snell & Wilmer's rates rose just over 2 percent in the last fiscal year. The firm recently hired a pricing director, James Omerza, to deploy sophisticated pricing tools and work with clients on fee arrangements, including alternative fee structures where appropriate.

Although Snell & Wilmer's bankruptcy practice was not quite as busy in fiscal year 2018 as in past years, the firm reports growing deal flow in such practice areas as commercial finance, labor and employment, real estate, tax and commercial litigation.

“Our commercial finance group and our bankruptcy group are looking to grow further in 2019. We all know that a downturn is coming, and these practice groups have plenty to do in a downturn. We know it's coming; we just don't know precisely when,” the firm representative said.

Snell & Wilmer's reported gross revenue stems solely from legal work and does not include any revenue from nonlegal subsidiaries. The law firm says it has not taken part in merger talks within the last couple of years.