Challenging? Interesting, perhaps? Pick your recessionary euphemism. Actually, topsy-turvy seems to more accurately reflect the year of highs, lows and contradictions that 2009-10 proved to be.

The UK top 50 hit its first absolute contraction in fee income since Legal Week began tracking its results, with total fees falling 4% from £12.3bn to £11.9bn after last year's exchange rate-assisted growth. Yet the group as a whole, having cut hundreds of millions of pounds from its cost base while trimming equity partner ranks, managed a considerable rebound in partner profits.

But the overall numbers do not reflect the huge swings in fortune within the top 50, which show no respect for market position or peer group. What else to make of a year in which four firms saw rises in profits per equity partner (PEP) of more than 50% while seven practices saw PEP falls of 10% or more? In many cases the financial year stood in direct contrast to 2008-09, with many of the biggest climbers like Travers Smith and LG being the same firms whose profitability was so savaged during the previous 12 months.

Picking out performers by peer group is thankless this year. Unlike 2009, there is little pattern of performance. The winners are as disparate as Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance (in relative terms), Bird & Bird, Travers Smith, Kennedys and DWF. And don't forget Lovells, which signs off its last pre-merger financial year having put in a sparkling five-year run. How's that for overturning conventional wisdom?

Having a tougher time of it were Simmons & Simmons, CMS Cameron McKenna, Nabarro and, of course, Halliwells. Pick out a pattern in that.

In many ways you have to look at a longer timeline to work out which firms have real underlying momentum. Of the larger firms, the current stand-outs are Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, A&O, Linklaters, Lovells, Bird & Bird and Clyde & Co.

One interesting trend to note is that leverage is not edging down as expected. Though firms have cut back on the associate ranks, this has been largely offset by contracting partnerships, both through exits and a second year of stingy internal promotions. Old habits die hard; it is easier for firms to talk about providing a partner-led service than to actually deliver it.

Ironically at the end of this unpredictable year, major law firms face an outlook spookily similar to that which they eyed warily in the summer of 2009. While Western economies are again growing, concerns about eurozone debt and moves to slash public spending have largely offset the good mood. We'll be waiting until the third quarter to see whether we are dealing with a global growth story or a narrative of anxiety and austerity. It's just as well law firms look well-placed to cope, as the ups and downs seem far from over.

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