Tom Fitzgerald of Winston & Strawn. Nov. 1, 2017. (Courtesy photo)

Winston & Strawn cracked the billion-dollar revenue mark in 2019 through a focused push to transition from a litigation-heavy firm to one that's evenly split between litigation and transactional practices.

The Chicago-based firm has been investing heavily in its transactional practices, to the point where approximately 50% of the $1.012 billion the firm generated in 2019 came from shepherding corporate deals, said chairman Thomas Fitzgerald.

"We have gone from being a firm that is slightly more focused on litigation, disputes, and we have upped that—not because litigation has gone down, quite the contrary, it has grown. We've just been able to grow corporate at a higher rate than litigation," Fitzgerald said.

Winston's overall revenue grew by 2.1%, and the firm also saw its revenue per lawyer and profits per partner rise by 3.8% and 7%, respectively, to $1.15 million and $2.31 million. Part of those rises were due to the two equity and 11 nonequity partners the firm lost last year. Fitzgerald said the firm had "double-digit" partner retirements last year, which it has never had before.

But the firm brought on 20 lateral partners last year, including several in the corporate space, allowing it to build out the work it was able to do for existing clients.

Winston lawyers worked on more than 400 transactions in 2019, including the $2 billion sale of Reinhart Foodservice, an Illinois food distributor, from Reyes Holdings to Performance Food Group Co. Winston represented Reyes, another Illinois food retailer.

On the litigation side, the firm represented FM Global as the insurer successfully fended off a lawsuit from New York University after the school claimed it was owed $1.4 billion in coverage following Hurricane Sandy.

And Winston made national headlines last year as the firm's co-executive chairman, Dan Webb, waded into the messy Jussie Smollett legal saga. Webb, a former federal and special prosecutor, was appointed by a Cook County judge in August to investigate both the local state's attorney's office and the former "Empire" actor.

Webb was brought on after Cook County prosecutors dropped felony disorderly conduct charges against Smollett after he allegedly paid two men to stage a hate crime attack against him and filed a false police report. Webb charged Smollett with six counts of disorderly conduct in February of this year.

Fitzgerald said Webb is acting as special prosecutor on a pro bono basis.

"Dan is very insistent on doing it without creating issues on a financial basis, because it's important to the community in which we live, and quite frankly, the country at-large," Fitzgerald said. "From my point of view, the Smollett situation encapsulates the commitment we have to pro bono."

Among the 20 lateral partners Winston hired last year were former Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Pamela Davis, whose practice is built around the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and Sandra Edwards, the chairwoman of Farella Braun + Martel's environmental and product law department, in San Francisco. The firm also poached Houston energy partner Jimmy Vallee from Paul Hastings.

Winston's London office added three lateral partners last year, including Anthony Riley, the firm's first lateral hire in the office in over two years. Although he said Winston doesn't keep track of how geographic offices perform financially, Fitzgerald said their London office—which has under 30 lawyers—is not big enough.

"We are nowhere near where we need to be, size-wise," Fitzgerald said. He noted that Winston is in the process of closing its Dubai office and moving those lawyers back to London. However, seven of them were picked off by Squire Patton Boggs in January of this year.

Fitzgerald said it was difficult to grow both in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Geneva, which closed in 2015.

"We could have built Dubai out to 50 or Geneva out to 20 max, but if you're thinking about creating efficiencies for your client and profit for your partners, you may take the road we took," Fitzgerald said.

Winston is also looking to grow in China, which has been a difficult market for Am Law 100 firms to grow in. The firm closed its Beijing office in 2016. Winston has around 15 lawyers in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

"Our goal is to get China right, get Hong Kong right, then think about Singapore," Fitzgerald said, "It's very hard to skin this cat."

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