Jones Day: joins the big league

Two firms joined the exclusive club of $1 billion (£550 million) US practices in 2003 as the country’s largest firms recorded big increases in revenues and profits, it was revealed last week.

Income jumps of 21% and 14% respectively saw Jones Day and Latham & Watkins join Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom ($1.3 billion, up 1.5%) and Baker & McKenzie ($1.1 billion, up 7%) in the billionaire club, according to the annual Am Law 100 survey by The American Lawyer magazine. In early 2003, Jones Day merged with City firm Gouldens.


Overall, the top 100 firms posted gross revenues of nearly $42 billion, a rise of 9.5%, with average revenue per lawyer up 6% to $644,350.


> Average profit per partner leapt almost 10% to $930,700, while the average compensation for all partners was $825,500, a rise of 8.7%. Some 32 firms recorded profits per partner exceeding $1 million.


New York’s Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz was top for profits per partner as usual, but a 12% drop to $2.6 million allowed Cahill Gordon & Reindel, which benefited from a boom in its speciality of leveraged finance work, to close the gap after a 30% jump took it to $2.4 million. Cravath Swaine & Moore was the other firm over $2 million, with a 6% rise taking it to $2.1 million.


> The magazine said: ‘The glaring conclusion to be drawn from this year’s Am Law 100 survey is this: partnership isn’t what it used to be. It’s better. Much, much better … But here’s the catch. Partnership – equity partnership, in which a lawyer is a full voting member of a firm, with an ownership interest and a hefty share of profits – is an increasingly elusive prize.’


It found a fast-growing cadre of salaried partners – in 1994, there were 55 all-equity partnerships in the top 100; in 2003, it had fallen to 23. However, there are still almost three times as many equity partners at the top firms than salaried partners. The equity partners took home around $16 billion between them last year.


> Making up the top ten in revenue were Sidley Austin Brown & Wood ($926 million), Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw ($813 million), White & Case ($811 million), Weil Gotshal & Manges ($801 million), Shearman & Sterling ($731 million) and Kirkland & Ellis ($725 million).