After a dip in profits in 2016, Debevoise & Plimpton rebounded in 2017 by posting new, all-time financial highs.

The Am Law 100 firm's gross revenue grew 11.8 percent last year, to $822 million, a record high for Debevoise. Profits per partner at the firm also hit a record high, jumping 17.4 percent in 2017, to $2.827 million, while revenue per lawyer grew 8.8 percent, to $1.304 million.

Debevoise presiding partner Michael Blair, who assumed leadership of the New York-based firm in 2011, said the significant financial growth of the firm was directly attributable to strong growth in client demand.

“It wasn't just one, two or three really big projects,” Blair said. “It was, to a remarkable degree, just an across the board increase in client demand that in the aggregate was the largest that we've seen in more than a decade.”

All of the firm's priority industry groups—banking, health care, insurance, private equity and technology, media and telecommunications—experienced an increase in client demand in 2017, as did Debevoise's offices across Asia, Europe and the United States, Blair said.

The firm's litigation practice also saw an uptick in civil litigation and international disputes, while on the transactional side Debevoise's capital markets and M&A practice also had an increase, Blair added.

Debevoise landed roles on some of 2017's most high-profile deals. The firm advised Tribune Media Co. on its $3.9 billion sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. It also advised Discovery Communications Inc. on its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., a transaction valued at $14.6 billion. The firm closed out 2017 by advising Time Inc. on its $2.8 billion sale to magazine publishing rival Meredith Corp.

In the health care arena, a budding practice for the firm, Debevoise represented Japan's Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. on its $1.05 billion buy of Minnesota-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Upsher-Smith Laboratories Inc. The firm also advised private equity giant TPG Capital Management and fellow buyout firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe on their $4.1 billion acquisition of Kindred Healthcare Inc.

Head count at the firm also increased 2.9 percent last year to 631 up from 613 the year prior. The number of equity partners at Debevoise also grew 3 percent, to 138. In 2017, Debevoise welcomed back a number of former lawyers following notable stints in public service.

Former litigation partners Andrew Ceresney and Mary Jo White both returned to the firm from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ceresney, the former enforcement director at the SEC, rejoined Debevoise in March as co-chair of its litigation department. White led the SEC for four years under the Obama administration before heading back to Debevoise as senior chair and head of the firm's new strategic crisis response and solutions group.

“We established [the group] shortly after they came back to us,” Blair said. “[It] helps clients deal with large-scale crisis and that's the kind of work that [White] and [Ceresney] have done throughout their careers.”

Since its inception, the group has already advised on several high-profile matters, including assisting Wells Fargo & Co. on its annual self-assessment following several notable scandals. In late January, the National Football League retained White to lead an independent inquiry into Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson. White also recently led a Debevoise team that handled an internal investigation for the University of Rochester into the school's response to a sexual harassment scandal. The firm reportedly received at least $4.5 million for that work, according to news reports.

Elsewhere on the lateral market front, Debevoise brought Kara Brockmeyer, another ex-SEC lawyer and former chief of the regulator's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit, as a partner for its strategic crisis response, white-collar and regulatory defense groups in Washington, D.C. The firm also recruited Ropes & Gray corporate partner Paul Rubin to its health care practice in the nation's capital and picked up Clifford Chance insurance partner Clare Swirski in London.

Debevoise did also see some notable partner departures. In December, Kirkland & Ellis raided the firm for global investment management and funds head Erica Berthou and deputy corporate chair Jordan Murray.