As promised, here’s the AmLaw 100 for 2005. I’ll have some substantive
commentary later today, but for now I’ll primarily limit my gloss to that provided
by my friends at American Lawyer Media

"Five Am Law
200 firms posted gross revenue in excess of $1 billion in 2004, the largest
number ever. Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
broke the billion-dollar barrier for the first time in 2004, while the
others did so previously — Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in
1999; Baker & McKenzie in 2001; and Latham & Watkins and Jones
Day in 2003."

My very quick and dirty calculation of the change in revenue over last year’s AmLaw 100 is that at the top (Skadden, what a shock) the increase was 8.27% ($1.440-billion vs. $1.330-billion), while at the bottom (Ballard Spahr this year, Preston Gates last year) the increase was only 5.82% ($200-million vs. $189-million). Are the rich getting richer? Very preliminarily, it certainly looks that way.

The Billion-Dollar Club Expands

2004 Rank
2003 Rank
Firm
2004 Gross Revenue
Lawyers
1
1
Skadden
$1,440,000,000
1,554
2
2
Baker & McKenzie
$1,228,000,000
2,992
3
4
Latham & Watkins
$1,206,000,000
1,502
4
3
Jones Day
$1,190,000,000
2,076
5
5
Sidley Austin
$1,029,500,000
1,405
6
7
White & Case
$953,000,000
1,685
7
6
Mayer, Brown
$911,000,000
1,258
8
8
Weil, Gotshal
$905,000,000
1,080
9
10
Kirkland & Ellis
$835,000,000
897
10
11
Sullivan & Cromwell
$833,000,000
589
11
9
Shearman & Sterling
$775,000,000
963
12
58
Wilmer Cutler
$750,500,000
960
13
12
McDermott Will
$745,000,000
975
14
15
Morgan, Lewis
$723,500,000
1,112
15
20
Greenberg Traurig
$712,000,000
1,149
16
13
O’Melveny & Myers
$697,000,000
910
17
18
Cleary Gottlieb
$695,000,000
844
18
14
Gibson, Dunn
$693,000,000
745
19
19
Simpson Thacher
$691,000,000
632
20
21
Hogan & Hartson
$630,000,000
898
21
17
Akin Gump
$612,000,000
822
22
23
Paul, Hastings
$609,000,000
835
23
16
Davis Polk
$604,500,000
538
24
22
Morrison & Foerster
$593,000,000
882
25
27
Piper Rudnick
$580,500,000
905
26
26
Bingham McCutchen
$565,500,000
790
27
24
Holland & Knight
$551,000,000
1,155
28
25
Foley & Lardner
$542,500,000
869
29
28
Winston & Strawn
$516,500,000
793
30
32
Paul, Weiss
$504,000,000
480
31
33
Reed Smith
$503,500,000
881
32
30
Fulbright & Jaworski
$491,500,000
831
33
29
Orrick
$484,000,000
666
34
40
Debevoise & Plimpton
$478,500,000
536
35
36
Heller Ehrman
$472,000,000
628
36
37
King & Spalding
$470,000,000
707
37
37
Cravath
$455,000,000
389
37
34
Vinson & Elkins
$455,000,000
661
39
31
Arnold & Porter
$454,000,000
639
40
41
Dechert
$441,500,000
678
41
35
Hunton & Williams
$440,000,000
781
42
39
Pillsbury Winthrop
$432,500,000
643
43
42
Milbank, Tweed
$431,500,000
480
44
64
Wachtell
$431,000,000
197
45
43
Baker Botts
$420,000,000
643
46
51
Cadwalader
$416,000,000
486
46
52
Willkie Farr
$416,000,000
507
48
53
Sonnenschein
$411,000,000
660
49
55
Ropes & Gray
$404,500,000
501
50
50
Alston & Bird
$402,000,000
664
51
49
Proskauer Rose
$395,000,000
584
52
47
Squire, Sanders
$393,500,000
675
53
48
Dewey Ballantine
$380,500,000
524
54
46
Wilson Sonsini
$377,500,000
540
55
45
Bryan Cave
$372,500,000
726
55
62
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart
$372,500,000
697
57
57
Katten Muchin
$368,000,000
581
58
56
Kaye Scholer
$362,000,000
458
59
61
Fried, Frank
$359,000,000
438
60
54
LeBoeuf, Lamb
$356,500,000
601
61
44
Howrey
$352,000,000
525
62
67
Nixon Peabody
$348,000,000
593
63
65
McGuireWoods
$344,000,000
686
64
63
Covington & Burling
$337,500,000
463
65
59
Dorsey & Whitney
$330,000,000
619
66
73
Seyfarth Shaw
$313,000,000
603
67
69
Goodwin Procter
$302,500,000
433
68
72
Perkins Coie
$297,000,000
603
69
76
Schulte Roth
$292,000,000
354
70
68
Cooley Godward
$289,000,000
418
71
70
Baker & Hostetler
$284,000,000
605
72
80
Duane Morris
$264,000,000
480
73
71
Jenkens & Gilchrist
$258,000,000
435
74
79
Jenner & Block
$253,500,000
381
75
74
Shook, Hardy
$252,500,000
490
76
81
Blank Rome
$247,500,000
459
77
77
Chadbourne & Parke
$241,000,000
382
78
78
Thelen Reid
$240,000,000
413
79
83
Stroock & Stroock
$238,000,000
331
80
84
Kilpatrick Stockton
$236,000,000
442
81
90
Womble Carlyle
$233,000,000
475
82
93
Steptoe & Johnson
$232,500,000
335
83
75
Coudert Brothers
$230,000,000
552
83
92
Sheppard, Mullin
$230,000,000
366
85
82
Cahill Gordon
$227,000,000
242
86
86
Finnegan, Henderson
$225,000,000
292
87
95
Fish & Richardson
$224,500,000
304
88
91
Wilson, Elser
$222,000,000
675
89
86
Venable
$221,500,000
394
90
93
Andrews Kurth
$217,000,000
394
91
89
Mintz Levin
$216,500,000
373
92
88
Drinker Biddle
$213,500,000
426
93
85
Gray Cary
$213,000,000
350
93
96
Patton Boggs
$213,000,000
396
95
98
Haynes and Boone
$210,500,000
419
96
107
Pepper Hamilton
$209,500,000
382
97
97
Troutman Sanders
$206,500,000
468
98
101
Cozen O’Connor
$205,500,000
463
99
105
Faegre & Benson
$204,500,000
456
100
102
Ballard Spahr
$200,000,000
412
1 Due to the merger of Wilmer Cutler Pickering and Hale
and Dorr in June 2004, there is no year-over-year comparison for the merged
firm.
(The American Lawyer, July 2005)

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