Elite New York firms see slower growth in 2015
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Growth slowed for a group of 17 elite New York-based firms last year.
Revenue grew just 2.3 percent on average for the group of benchmark law firms, down from 4.5 percent in 2014, the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) reports. Profits per equity partner increased just 2.6 percent on average, down from 5.6 percent the prior year.
Profitability declined at two of those elite law firms for the third year in a row, according to the article. They are: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Cahill Gordon & Reindel.
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, on the other hand, was an “extreme outlier” with an increase in profits per partner of 21.5 percent, according to the article.
The group of 17 firms fared better in 2014, when they outperformed other top 100 law firms. Now the opposite is occurring.
The story notes that some of the elite firms worked on big deals in the second half of the year that weren’t reflected in the 2015 numbers.
The Am Law Daily discussed the findings with Gretta Rusanow, head of advisory services at Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group. The good results in 2014 were “an aberration,” she said. “The growth levels we saw last year are more akin to the growth in the previous few years, and are more akin to what we expect to see going forward.”
