US giant Latham & Watkins saw its revenue rebound in 2010 to rise nearly 6% to $1.93bn (£1.2bn), writes The Am Law Daily.

The top 10 global law firm announced its financial results on Thursday (17 February), unveiling a 4.5% rise in profits per equity partner to $1.99m (£1.24m) while revenue per lawyer increased by nearly 7% to $999,000 (£624,000).

"Coming into the year we viewed it as a still quite choppy economy," said firm chairman Robert Dell. "We were pretty comforted to grow demand for our services by $100m (£62.5m). That was at the higher end of our expectations."

The results mark a clear return to growth for one of the most expansive US practices of recent years. The firm's run of rapid growth was broken in 2009, when it announced a global programme of 440 job cuts after seeing revenues sharply slide.

However, the firm was investing again in 2010, including securing two high-profile team hires from White & Case in Europe and the Middle East.

The firm's big deals of the year included the $9.6bn (£6bn) acquisition by client Vedanta Resources of Cairn Energy's oil and gas unit, and the sale by client Repsol of a $7.1bn (£4.4bn) Brazilian stake to Sinopec.

The Am Law Daily is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.