For the second year in a row, revenue per lawyer for Am Law 100 firms, as a group, declined slightly. Average revenue per lawyer fell about 2 percent in 2009, following a 1 percent drop in 2008—performance that is a far cry from the year-to-year increases of 6, 7, and 8 percent that firms had become accustomed to.
Five firms posted double-digit declines in RPL [see "Losing Ground," right]. The biggest was at Debevoise & Plimpton, where RPL fell 19.1 percent, to $975,000, as head count increased 8.7 percent, to 686. Debevoise officials declined interview requests but said in a statement that “we are one of the few firms that did not reduce our overall associate head count in 2009, and that had a negative effect on our revenue per lawyer.” The firm also clearly felt the effects of the end in December 2008 of its internal-investigation work stemming from bribery allegations against German conglomerate Siemens AG.
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