A clutch of US law firms have posted strong financial results as the 2016 stateside reporting season gathers pace.

Alston & Bird has posted solid revenue and profit gains while increasing headcount, powered by several big litigation matters and a steady stream of transactional work.

Revenue increased 6.2% to $730.5m (£588.5m), while net income rose 7.9% to $267m (£215m), pushing up average profit per equity partner (PEP) to $1.81m (£1.46m).

Increased headcount, coupled with sustained demand boosted 2016 revenue, said managing partner Richard Hays (pictured above), adding that total billable hours increased by 2.7%. The firm's realisation rate on collections was about the same as for 2015, he said. Even with more lawyers, revenue per lawyer increased 2.2% to $935,000 (£753,000).

Hays said transactional work was not quite as busy for Alston as in 2015, but litigation activity increased. He added that he was pleased with the firm's performance, especially given the headwinds facing the industry.

"2016 was another year of modest growth for law firms generally, with uncertainty both domestically and abroad," he said, citing the US presidential election and the Brexit vote in the UK. "Our view is that to grow in this environment requires, more than ever, a focus on staying close to your clients, understanding their current needs and anticipating their future needs."

He noted that some issues in the political spotlight right now, such as tax reform, trade, cybersecurity and data privacy, intersect with busy practice areas for the firm.

Hays said the firm has no plans to bolster its international presence with more offices or through mergers. Beyond its eight US offices, Alston opened a small Beijing office in late 2015 to provide an on-the-ground presence for Chinese clients, and it has a four-lawyer outpost in Brussels focused on payments and data privacy work.

"We're willing to be wherever our clients need us to be," Hays said. "That's what took us to Brussels and Beijing, and it may take us to other markets."

Elsewhere, Crowell & Moring partners enjoyed an uncommonly good year in 2016. "They hated it," chairwoman Angela Styles joked about partners' responses to the firm's big gains in both revenue and profits.

The firm, which has a small London outpost of around 10 lawyers, posted a 20% boost in revenue for 2016, and PEP jumped 40%.

Gross revenue landed at $434.3m (£350m), an increase of more than $71m (£57m) from the year before, while PEP reached $1.45m (£1.17m), which was $412,000 (£332,000) more per partner than the firm reported the previous year.

Major shifts in gross revenue at large firms often signal a big payday or a big change in headcount: more lawyers mean more billing, and contingency work can bring a sudden windfall. But Crowell said it found several ways to squeeze more money out of the same-sized pool of lawyers, and Styles declined to disclose any major contingency case payouts last year.

Total lawyer headcount shrunk by one, to 440 lawyers. The equity partnership, at 97 partners, remained about even with 2015, as did the non-equity partnership.

"There's no flash in the pan per se for us. Some years are better for us," Styles said. "Even in a year where we're doing well, I'm focused like a laser on our expenses and our space, and making sure we're really running a tight ship here. Both base and contingency business were better."

Other US firms announcing 2016 results include Cozen O'Connor, which boosted revenue by more than 10% in 2016, as the firm continued to reap the benefits of acquisitions and lateral hires, as well as demand that bucked industry trends.

The firm, which also has a small London office, posted $376m (£303m) in gross revenue in 2016, up from $341.5m (£275m) in 2015. Revenue per lawyer was at $665,000 (£535,000), an increase of 3.9% from 2015, while PEP grew by 3.4% to $770,000 (£620,000).

"Demand continues to increase year over year at a greater pace than lawyer growth, so our revenue growth was not just a product of more lawyers, it was a product of greater demand and more productivity," CEO Michael Heller said.

Heller acknowledged that Cozen's increase in demand ran counter to the industry-wide trend. He said investments in lateral growth and marketing have kept demand high, and that commercial litigation, corporate, real estate, IP and and employment practices performed especially well in 2016.

Meanwhile, a significant increase in contingency fee income helped Fish & Richardson continue its growth in 2016, with the firm posting solid gains in both revenue and profit.

The Boston-based firm did not quite hit the heights of 2015, when a huge IP litigation caseload saw it achieve double-digit growth across all metrics. But Fish CEO Peter Devlin told The American Lawyer that it was still a "really strong year across the board".

Fish's gross revenue increased 3.2% in the last financial year, to $407.5m (£328m), while the 350-lawyer firm maintained its record revenue per lawyer of $1.17m (£942,000), which remained flat in 2016. The firm's profit margin was also unchanged at 40%.

A slight reduction in equity partner numbers meant that a 2.8% increase in net income, to $163m (£131m), was compounded on a per partner basis, with PEP rising 6.7% to $1.59m (£1.28m), the second-highest PEP in the firm's 138-year history and 25% above its budget forecast, according to Devlin.

Devlin said that 2016 was another standout year for Fish's giant IP litigation practice, which accounts for approximately two thirds of the firm's total revenue, and added that the firm's costs were reduced by "roughly $3m (£2.4m)" in 2016, thanks to its new business support centre in Minneapolis, which launched in 2015.