Chase Simmons of Polsinelli.

Polsinelli is closing out its fiscal year with more revenue and a larger head count than it initially planned for, all but putting a bow on Chase Simmons' first year as the firm's CEO.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based firm's revenue increased by 13%, from $513.58 million in fiscal year 2018 to $580.44 million in 2019. Polsinelli's fiscal year starts Nov. 1 and ends Oct. 31.

The firm is also reporting a 28% increase in its profits per equity partner, rising from $739,000 to $948,000.

The firm's head count also increased to 903 lawyers, an 11% increase from the 810 lawyers Polsinelli had in 2019, according to data from ALM Intelligence. (A firm spokesperson noted that by Polsinelli's count, it had 848 lawyers in FY 2018. ALM uses average full-time equivalent figures for head count.)

With that many lawyers now working across the firm's 22 offices, there was no single reason why the firm's revenue grew by 13%, Simmons said.

"At our scale, at 900 lawyers, it's never, at least for us, it's not one particular deal or litigation," said Simmons, who took over as the CEO on Jan. 1. "Our existing clients just continued to drive work to us."

Simmons also credited the increases to Polsinelli's commitment to organic growth. Earlier this month, the firm promoted 31 of its lawyers to shareholders. A firm spokeswoman said it's at least the largest class in the past five years.

Polsinelli's growth this year came as several other Midwestern-based firms announced that they were merging with other firms. There's Taft Stettinius & Hollister's union with Briggs and Morgan, Dentons combining with Bingham Greenebaum Doll and Cohen & Grigsby, and the deal between Lathrop Gage and Gray Plant Mooty.

And this week brought double merger talk news in Big Law: Minneapolis-based Faegre Baker Daniels acknowledged its talks with Philadelphia's Drinker Biddle & Reath, and Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders confirmed its discussions with Philadelphia's Pepper Hamilton.

Simmons indicated that Polsinelli isn't open to merging with another law firm, saying the firm is "comfortable" and wants to retain control of its culture. He added, however, that Polsinelli hasn't sworn off mergers altogether. Polsinelli itself was the result of a merger between Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus and Shughart Thomson & Kilroy in 2009.

"We're generally pretty comfortable about where we are from a scale standpoint," Simmons said, adding that the firm could be open to a merger in the future. "We're just not hearing anything from our clients that tells us we need to be bigger. We're just not really feeling that right now."

The firm's comfort with its current status extends to its geographic footprint. Earlier this year, it opened an office in Miami with lawyers from Akerman and GrayRobinson. The lack of a Florida office was "a hole on the map for us," Simmons said. Now that the hole is filled, Polsinelli isn't looking to expand into other cities, he said.

"We have accomplished our strategic plan from a geographic footprint standpoint," Simmons said, adding that Polsinelli will "likely not" become an international firm because it can work with other firms outside the U.S. to handle international needs. "We're comfortable that we have the coverage for our clients that we need."

That said, the firm is still looking to grow. Simmons said in a couple of years, Polsinelli could grow as large as 1,000 lawyers. He added, however, that reaching that level would only be a "byproduct" of the firm's current strategy.

Right now, the firm is looking to build up the size of its newest offices in Miami and Seattle, the latter of which Polsinelli opened in 2018, so that both of them are full-service. Not every Polsinelli office is that way—its Silicon Valley outpost is centered around venture capital and intellectual property work.

To that end, Polsinelli on Wednesday announced that it was adding four patent attorneys—all women—to its Seattle office. They are the first IP lawyers in that location, Simmons said.

"In the first few years, you're going to see a health care and IP concentration," Simmons said, regarding the Seattle office.