The Lawyer‘s UK 100 listing will be out right after Labor
Day, but we have an advance peek at the top 10 today. Linklaters
is #1 at £410-million in revenue (US$738-million), up over
8% on strong corporate-department performance. Clifford
Chance took second at £402-million, but up just 4%. Both
Allen & Overy and Freshfields suffered declines in revenue, with
A&O down just over 1% (£358-million) and Freshfields
down 6% (£320-million). We’ll have to await the full
report to understand why.
Interestingly, 14 of the top 50 are US-headquartered.
Meanwhile, over at Bloomberg,
there’s a more analytic story that shows a reporter actually doing
more than repackaging press releases. (Since the California
courts have held that bloggers aren’t journalists, I can say that
without fear of revocation of my press credentials.) Bloomberg
analyzed "productivity" of the top law firms, which they
defined as revenue per employee (not per lawyer—per
everyone). Linklaters again grabs #1 by a healthy margin
but on this metric Clifford Chance is not second but fifth, with
Freshfields taking its place as #2:
Revenue Per Employee at London's Top 20 Law Firms. Law Firm Revenue Headcount Fees per (Millions employee of pounds) (in pounds) Linklaters 805 4770 168,763 Freshfields Bruckhaus 780 5245 148,713 SJ Berwin 122 870 140,229 Allen & Overy LLP 666 4766 139,739 Herbert Smith LLP 265 1930 137,305 Clifford Chance LLP 915 6700 136,567 Lovells 366 2779 131,702 Ashurst 201 1539 130,604 Berwin Leighton Paisner 121 938 128,997 Addleshaw Goddard 139 1173 118,499 Clyde & Co 104 908 114,537 Norton Rose 210 1850 113,513 Denton Wilde Sapte 154 1414 108,900 CMS Cameron McKenna 163 1533 106,327 Simmons & Simmons 196 1904 102,941 Pinsent Masons 151 1518 99,209 DLA Piper Rudnick* 450 4851 92,764 Eversheds 303 3870 78,242 Hammonds 100 1439 69,492 Irwin Mitchell 102 1677 61,187 Source: Bloomberg Survey *DLA merged with U.S. firm Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP Jan. 1. The firm's revenue and headcount figure reflects DLA's for fiscal 2005 plus Piper's proportionate to the part of fiscal 2005 after the merger, not DLA's total headcount plus Piper's total headcount. To contact the reporter on this story: James Lumley in London at jlumley1@bloomberg.com.
Curiously, Bloomberg reports that "Slaughter & May declined to
say" what its revenue was, while The Lawyer pegs
it at £257-million, up 20%. Different answers for legal
as opposed to business reporters? If I become a journalist,
I’ll have to remember that distinction—or else just call
back and ask for someone else.
