Nothing grows forever. For the first time since 1991, both average profits per partner and revenue per lawyer dipped last year among the Am Law 100 firms, the top-grossing firms in the nation. And, given the weakness in the market in 2009, another decline seems likely this year.
Those are the headlines from the 23d annual Am Law 100 report, just published in The American Lawyer , a sibling publication of The National Law Journal . These results are for 2008. They capture the start of the economic distress that set the stage for record law firm layoffs and anxiety but, because of the cutoff date, mask the distress with which many firms are now dealing. Last year, overall gross revenue grew by 4.1%, to $67 billion, a record. But head count grew faster, increasing by 5.4%, to 81,992 lawyers. As a result of that growth, plus a serious drop in demand during the second half of 2008 for high-end work — especially in the corporate and finance sectors — profits per partner (PPP) fell by 4.3%, to an average of $1.26 million, and revenue per lawyer (RPL) dropped 1.2%, to $818,000.
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