DLA Piper has increased its headcount by 8.7% to overtake Bakers as the largest firm by number of lawyers. The transatlantic firm now has 3,623 lawyers compared with Bakers’ 3,335.
Bakers, which has held the top spot on the NLJ’s annual survey of US-based firms since 1978, shrunk by 5.6% after losing 200 lawyers in the past 12 months.
Jones Day is the third-largest firm, while Latham & Watkins and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom are placed fourth and fifth respectively.
Overall the top 250 firms grew by 5.6%, well up on the 4% increase in 2006 and the largest growth rate since 2001, when firms’ headcount increased
by 8.2%.
The biggest increases came with the marriage of
Reed Smith climbed 20 places on the list, with lawyer numbers leaping from 1,038 last year to 1,447 this year.
Non-equity partners constitute an increasingly large proportion (8.2%) of lawyers at firms, with the average number growing in
the past year to 55.2 non-equity partners per firm, compared with 51 in 2006.
The number of women working in the
