While Bracewell posted a 5.3% decline in revenue in 2019, the slimmed-down firm saw revenue per lawyer and profits per equity partner hit all-time highs.

The firm's gross revenue came in at $284 million for 2019, down 5.3% when compared with $300 million in 2018. But managing partner Gregory Bopp said revenue changed little on a year-to-year basis when accounting for a one-time windfall in 2018: a $20 million in contingency fee.

RPL was $838,000 in 2019, up 2.7% when compared with the prior year, but the firmwide head count of 339 lawyers was 7.8% lower than in 2018.

PEP was $1.50 million, up 3.6% when compared with $1.45 million last year. Net income totaled $100.7 million, down 2.2% from $103.1 million in 2018.

Bopp said was 2019 was an "excellent year" across the firm, pointing to the increases in RPL and PEP. He said energy and infrastructure and finance practices were busy throughout the entire year, as were the regulatory and litigation practices.

"A lot of that is driven by the tremendous amount of energy and non-energy infrastructure work that was going on throughout North America," he said.

Transactional lawyers were involved in many midstream projects—including pipelines—from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast, he said.  Transactions include representing Kinder Morgan in the $1.56 billion sale of the U.S. portion of the Cochin Pipeline to Pembina Pipeline Corp., TC Energy Corp. in its $1.275 billion sale of U.S. midstream assets held by its subsidiary, Columbia Midstream Group, to a subsidiary of UGI Corp., and Apache Corp. in the sale of North Sea oil  and gas assets to Chrysaor.

The firm also represents Kinder Morgan in litigation over construction of the Permian Highway Mountain pipeline; Apache in a number of oil and gas lawsuits; and the Archdiocese of New York in connection with allegations of sexual abuse.

Bopp said the firm's London office posted its best year ever. That office is focused solely on energy and infrastructure work, he said.

While a number of other firms said the slowdown of capital markets work in the energy sector affected demand, Bopp said Bracewell's energy practice is focused on the full spectrum of  infrastructure development in the sector including permitting, regulatory, transactions, commercial contracts and litigation.

"The oil and gas-related capital markets work was not as robust in 2019, but the power and utility capital markets work for us was busier," he said.

Head count declined in 2019 at Bracewell primarily due to retirements and a number of departures for in-house positions. But the firm did lose some lawyers, including two renewable energy partners in Houston and New York who went to Sidley Austin, and a four-lawyer group that moved to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Dallas.

Bopp said the firm brought on 12 lateral partners in 2019, including four boomerangs—two intellectual property litigation partners in Austin, an energy projects partner in Dubai and a litigation partner in New York. Other hires were in Dallas, New York and Dubai.

The firm is looking to recruit lawyers into both the energy and projects practices across its geographic footprint, and is looking at some potential white-collar defense and public finances hires as well, he said. He expects the firm's bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers to be very busy this year, particularly because the price of oil has dropped so low, and expects a heavy workload in infrastructure.

2020 started off "exceptionally well," with the first two-and-a-half months the most productive in many years, Bopp said. But, he said, in setting expectations for the rest of the year the coronavirus must be considered.

"It's too soon to tell precisely how that will impact demand over the longer term," he said.

|

Read More

Partner Profits Outpace Revenue at Bracewell in 'Outstanding' 2018