Hogan & Hartson has posted its financial results for 2009, with the firm seeing a decrease in both revenue and profits.

The firm's revenue slid from $922.5m (£597.5m) to $864.5m (£560m), a decrease of more than 6%, while partner profits also fell, slipping by 5% to $1.11m (£719,000).

Hogan posted a slight increase of 1% in overall headcount, rising from 1,107 to 1,121, while the total number of equity partners decreased by five to 287. Hogan's non-equity partnership ranks increased by about 4% to 210.

Noting that the firm is in the process of finalising its merger deal with Lovells, Hogan chairman Warren Gorrell said the fluctuations in headcount were "immaterial." When the tie-up is completed in May, the combined firm, Hogan Lovells, will boast more than 2,500 lawyers and estimated revenues of more than $1.9bn (£1.2bn).

Gorrell (pictured) said, "It's a simple story. 2008 was a strong year for Hogan. But because the recession hit us much later than it hit other firms, our revenues slowed down in 2009."

Gorrell said that the firm's corporate practices, which make up about 30% of the firm's business, were hit hard last year, particularly in the M&A and capital markets practices. "There was just less of that work last year globally," he said.

In the past few months, Gorrell said, the firm has seen a "significant increase" in corporate work. "We have a number of transactions in progress that haven't been completed yet. It's been much busier lately," he said.

Hogan cut costs last year by tweaking its two-tier associate pay scale and moving first-year associates who were not on track to bill at least 1,850 hours this year to the lower salary tier of $151,250 (£98,000). The firm also laid off 93 staff members across its 13 US offices. Though the firm did not formally fire any lawyers, 30 senior associates were given four months' notice that they needed to start looking for work elsewhere.

This article first appeared on The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.