Archer & Greiner, one of New Jersey's largest homegrown firms, posted a 7.1% increase in gross revenue in fiscal 2019, and did it with fewer attorneys.

The year-over-year revenue growth, to $95.5 million from $89.2 million, came as firmwide attorney head count decreased by 1.7%, to 177 from 180.

Thus a healthy 8.9% gain in revenue per lawyer, to $540,000 from $496,000, is what drives the overall revenue increase for the Haddonfield-based firm, whose fiscal year ended last Sept. 30.

"All this was accomplished at a time when we didn't add head count … so [the growth] does include a level of increased activity," firm president Christopher Gibson said in a recent interview. "A lot of firms probably felt a bit of strength in the legal market."

Archer's gross revenue has grown by a little less than 10% over a five-year period, according to historical Law Journal data.

Among the firm's active practices is environmental litigation, including work generated from state-filed natural resources claims, according to Gibson. "We don't sit second to anybody in this state or anywhere else, quite frankly," when it comes to that practice, he said. For example, Archer is representing the PennEast Pipeline Co. in litigation over its proposed natural gas pipeline route.

Gibson additionally pointed to environmental regulation and land use, as well as white-collar defense and bankruptcy, as areas of strength for the firm, which also added to its lobbying subsidiary Archer Public Affairs, including with a new office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2019.

The firm last year also added lateral hires in the areas of employment law and ERISA, Gibson also noted. That followed the 2018 addition of a specialty creditors' rights group, and opening of a New York office, via its acquisition of DiConza Traurig Kadish.

The firm's cannabis practice, drawing on labor and employment, transactional and land use practitioners, also has generated work in corporate formation and regulatory areas, he said.

Chris Gibson of Archer & Greiner

"We seem to be shifting and adding new areas, and we continue to look for … opportunities," Gibson said. "There are always growth areas in the law."

There was a net decrease of three equity partners (to 50 from 53) in fiscal 2019, attributable to retirements, according to Gibson. (The firm has no mandatory retirement age, he noted.)

Profit per equity partner (PEP), meanwhile, increased 19.6%, to $598,000 from $500,000.

The equity partner ranks have grown since Archer's fiscal year ended in the fall. The firm made numerous new partners in the new year, including 12 equity partners, Gibson said.

The new class of equity partners, Gibson said, shows "a commitment particularly to some of these young people who've worked so hard."

"A lot of these younger people are part of a concerted effort by the firm to plan for the future," he added.

Gibson acknowledged that PEP is a competitive metric for law firms, but said he's not concerned about overgrowing the equity partner tier. The key is to focus on practice growth rather than the number of equity shares and their corresponding value, he said.

"Of course you're making equity partners on the basis of multiple factors," he noted.

Last year was eventful in other ways for Archer. In June, longtime firm chairman James Carll stepped down and was replaced by business law partner Deborah Hays, amid other changes to leadership structure. And in late 2018, the firm created a chief diversity officer position and appointed partner Lloyd Freeman, who has done "a fantastic job" since then, Gibson noted in his interview.

Where Archer's $95.5 million in gross revenue for fiscal 2019 positions it for this year's Am Law 200 remains to be seen. With $89.2 million in gross revenue for fiscal 2018, the firm was off the board last year. It made the list in 2013 and 2017. Last year's No. 200 firm, California's Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, posted $97 million in 2018 revenue.