Skadden bucks trend to record rising revenues in Paris as CC, Freshfields and SJ Berwin suffer in France market

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom was the fastest-growing international firm by turnover in the French market last year, expanding its practice by 20%.

Revenue at the US law firm's Paris practice stood at €26.4m (£22m) for the last financial year, up from €22m (£18.3m) last year, according to research carried out by Juristes Associes. The firm is now the 34th largest practice by turnover in the country.

Skadden's performance bucks the overall trend for international firms in the region, which for the most part have seen sizable drops in turnover. Clifford Chance (CC), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and SJ Berwin all posted double-digit declines in revenue for the year.

Skadden Paris head Pierre Servan-Schrieber said: "[Our success] is down to our model. We are a small office and both because of our strategy and the sheer size of our firm worldwide we have a number of clients with global needs."

SJ Berwin saw the biggest drop in turnover among France's top 50 firms, falling 25.8% from €28.3m (£23.6m) in 2008 to €21m (£17.5m) in 2009, while CC and Freshfields saw declines of 15.3% and 13.9% respectively.

De Pardieu Brocas Maffei corporate partner Patrick Jaies said: "There is no uniform answer as to why international firms have suffered more in 2009, but French law firms seem to have been much more resistant because we have a strong handle on the market."

By contrast, turnover at local firms remained largely steady. Tax-dominated firms continued to head the rankings, with Fidal once again at the top of the table, posting a 0.5% decline in revenue to €295m (£245m) at the year end.

Gide Loyrette Nouel climbed from fifth to second place in the rankings but saw a 13% drop in revenue to €138.2m (£115m) for the period.

Gide managing partner Christophe Eck (pictured) said: "First of all we didn't make any redundancies like the Anglo-Saxon firms did because it is not our policy. Despite the fact there was less activity, we don't ask people to leave because it takes a long time to hire and train talented people. We have a long-term view."

Linklaters had the highest turnover of the international firms, bringing in €101m (£84m) over the year.

Linklaters local managing partner Paul Lignieres commented: "Our strategy has not changed. We are and strive to remain a relationship-driven firm. We are very well established in France and have a thoroughly French approach to the market as well as being able to add the international dimension."

Ranked by revenue per lawyer, a number of Anglo-Saxon firms put in a strong performance, with Reed Smith and Latham & Watkins both seeing growth of over 30%. Latham has the highest revenue per lawyer at €1.14m (£950,800) for its 79 fee earners in the French capital, while at Reed Smith this value stands at €353,000 (£294,000) for its 12 fee earners.

Reed Smith Paris managing partner Benoit Cherot said: "We have built the Paris office off its knees since we launched in 2005 and from the beginning we have had the strategy to be as the rest of the firm is and offer a full-service office to our clients and be a player in the Paris market."

International firms now hold slightly over half of the market share in France, taking 51.9% of the work, compared to 49.6% last year.