The 100 law firms with the biggest presence in New York mostly continued to grow last year, although average head count growth slowed and fewer firms saw blockbuster growth than the year before.

This year's New York Law Journal 100 tallied the average number of full-time equivalent lawyers at law firms across the state. The biggest presence on the list was the 833-lawyer office of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, while the smallest were the 90-lawyer Manhattan offices of Cozen O'Connor and Baker Botts.

See the Chart: NYLJ 100: Largest Firms by Number of Lawyers in New York

The top 100 law firms employed nearly 23,000 lawyers in New York last year, an increase of about 2.7 percent from their 2017 averages. The biggest 20 firms grew their head counts 0.2 percentage points faster than average, the next 20 firms grew 0.5 percentage points faster, and the bottom three quintiles grew slower than average.

After Paul, Weiss, Davis Polk & Wardwell, which tallied 704 lawyers in New York in 2018, took second place from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, which shrunk from 692 lawyers in 2017 to 673 last year. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett also shrunk, from 623 lawyers to 610, and Kirkland & Ellis—the top-grossing firm in the Am Law 100—jumped up three places to round out the top five, growing its Manhattan office from 503 to 581 lawyers.

Several firms reported growing headcount by more than 10% from 2017 to 2018. McDermott Will & Emery may have its biggest office in Chicago, but it topped even Kirkland in terms of growth rates, going from an average of 108 attorneys in 2017 to 129 last year. Other firms whose New York footprint grew by double digits include Fragomen, Del Rey, Bensen & Loewy, Linklaters, Winston & Strawn, Cooley and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

Some 63 firms reported growth, two held steady and 35 reported that their headcount had shrunk, a similar breakdown to last year's NYLJ 100.

Industry hiring was not as strong by two measures, however. The 2.7 percent growth at the big firms was down from about 3.5 percent recorded the year before. And only eight firms among the top 100 recorded double-digit percentage growth in the Empire State from one year to the next, down from about 12 law firms last year.

Range of Approaches

New York law firm leaders have pursued a variety of different strategies in order to succeed, and several elite firms have boosted revenue while keeping a lid on equity partner numbers. Some have taken on big associate classes and raised their leverage in the process, and others have turned to the lateral market.

Still others have cut back in some practices in hopes of improving their performance to lure top talent in other areas, while some firms shrunk in the wake of a merger.

Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, a multinational law firm that helps big companies and individuals with visa and residency issues, has focused on organic growth, increasing its tally in New York from 97 to 112 attorneys last year. Austin Fragomen, the firm's chairman, said the firm focuses on promoting associates over lateral hiring—it has a robust summer law clerk program, he said—and President Donald Trump's immigration policies have been boosting demand.

“The administration has taken … a very conservative approach in terms of interpreting the immigration laws as to who's entitled to status in various work categories,” he said. Generally, he said, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued more requests for evidence, and “you need more legal manpower to be able to respond to these requests.”

Other firms have focused on lateral hires. McDermott Will & Emery took on dozens of lawyers from DLA Piper, including some in its New York office. The firm announced the addition of two teams of real-estate finance lawyers last year.

At Winston & Strawn, chairman Tom Fitzgerald said the firm has put a strategic emphasis on “tuck-in” additions of single lawyers or small groups, with a focus on private equity and financing. He said lawyers in New York like tax partner Robert Heller have been a key part of the offering, as private equity clients need lawyers negotiating, financing and structuring their deals.

Winston's office in New York grew 12 percent from 2017 to 2018, and Fitzgerald said it may soon overtake the firm's historic home base in Chicago. One thing Fitzgerald has noticed, though, is a dearth of senior associates. The firm has focused on hiring senior associates and young partners as part of its growth strategy in New York and elsewhere, but the knock-on effects of the recession are still being felt.

“The need for mature associates in the corporate world is a crying need in almost every major law firm,” he said. “Back in 2008 and 2009, [Big Law] didn't hire enough associates … and we're paying the price now.”

Some firms have been trimming head count, but they say there is no cause for concern. Norton Rose Fulbright, coming at number 34, went from 253 to 232 attorneys in New York last year, a net loss of about 8%. Daryl Lansdale, the firm's U.S. managing partner, said the reduction was a natural consequence of its merger with Manhattan-based Chadbourne & Parke in 2017.

“Unsurprisingly, growth of this magnitude was followed by some departures as we integrated,” Lansdale said in a statement. “This combination has benefited our clients with an expanded and enhanced offering in New York and Washington consisting of outstanding legal talent from both legacy firms.”

The sharpest reductions in head count took place at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, where head count dropped 23% from 133 to an average of 102, and at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, which contracted 12% from 169 to 148 lawyers; firm spokeswoman Stefanie Christopher said the reduction at Hughes Hubbard was “a result of normal attrition and retirements.”

“In 2019, we announced our largest partner class in five years—50% women—and in total we had 14 promotions to the partner and counsel ranks, our largest total class of promotions in more than a decade,” she wrote. “In the first half of this year, we have brought on six star lateral partners in leading practices; two of those six have joined us in the New York office. Both in New York and as a whole, we are energized and focused on presenting the team that best serves our clients' needs.”

A Curtis spokesman didn't respond to a comment request.

NYC Law Department Growth Stands Out

Growth within in-house government legal departments was relatively flat in New York last year, but the New York City Law Department head count increased significantly.

The Law Department, also called the Corporation Counsel, added a net of 43 lawyers to boost its ranks to 973. The office's lawyers draft and review legal instruments and represent the city and its officials in civil litigation and certain other contexts, like juvenile delinquency cases.

There was major growth in the numbers of women and racial and ethnic minority lawyers in the Law Department. The net additions of women lawyers matched the office's overall head count growth, with 43 added to push the total to 580. The rise in self-reported minority lawyers was even sharper; the net increase of 44 minority lawyers equated to an 18.5% increase over the 2017 total of 238.

Nick Paolucci, the Law Department's spokesman, said in a statement that the rising headcount has been driven by a high volume of tort cases in the Bronx and Brooklyn, a factor he also cited last year, and an effort “to enhance the quality of trial preparation.” He said the state's Raise the Age initiative—which reduced the number of 16- and 17-year-olds being charged as adults—also resulted in a higher juvenile delinquency caseload.

“Our success in diversity hiring reflects the pool of first rate legal talent available in New York City and our commitment to maintaining a workforce that looks like the city we serve,” Paolucci said.

At district attorneys' offices across the state, which together employ some 3,300 lawyers, hirings and firings were mostly flat. Some larger offices like Westchester and Erie County reported no net changes whatsoever. The five boroughs, whose prosecutors' offices together employ nearly 2,000 lawyers, saw slight upticks in Staten Island and Manhattan, but a decline of about 8.5% in the Bronx, from 542 to 496.

The number of women prosecutors in the Bronx rose nearly 17%, from 236 to 276, while the number of minority lawyers in the DA's office fell from 185 to 165. A spokesman for the office said it has “lost a lot of people to [the Law Department] because of Raise the Age and lack of pay parity for attorneys.”

“The most significant staffing challenge we have is that we cannot recruit and retain adequate numbers of attorneys to stabilize our legal work force,” District Attorney Darcel Clark said in testimony last year before the New York City Council. She told city lawmakers that new lawyers were paid just $65,000 to $69,000 per year, less than other jobs, and said there had been nearly 20% turnover in one year.

Growth at the state attorney general's office was also subdued, going from 694 lawyers at the close of 2017 to 703 lawyers a year later. The number of women lawyers grew by one, and the office didn't report racial and ethnic minority statistics.

Overall headcount at the four U.S. Attorneys offices that enforce federal statutes across the state was basically flat, with shrinkage in the Eastern District—covering Long Island and Staten Island—offset by growth in the rest of the state. There were slight declines in the number of women and racial and ethnic minority employees in the federal offices.