Leading Bay Area firms have shaken off the effects of the credit crunch to chart strong financial results for 2007, writes The Recorder, with Morrison & Foerster and Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe among those posting significant increases in turnover and revenue per lawyer (RPL).
Orrick saw turnover increase by 16% to reach $772m (£391m), while RPL improved by 8% to hit $850,000 (£430,550). MoFo also saw fee income climb by 16% compared to 2006, raking in $894m (£452.8m) over the last 12 months. RPL at MoFo was up by 9% to $890,000 (£450,820).
Leaders at MoFo and Orrick credited their increases to international scope and diversity of core practice areas, with Orrick chairman Ralph Baxter commenting: "[With] the international platform of the firm, we are now able to serve our clients around the world in a significantly more comprehensive way than we were just a few years ago."
"We saw lots of activity in our core litigation strengths," said MoFo chairman Keith Wetmore.
Cooley Godward Kronish reported a 45% increase in turnover thanks to its 2006 merger with 110-lawyer New York boutique Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman, with total fee income at the combined practice soaring to $485m (£245.7m).
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman saw a more modest 2% increase in revenue to $590m (£298.9m), with RPL edging up by 5% to $810,000 (£410,290).
Heller Ehrman was the hardest hit of the large San Francisco firms to have unveiled its results so far, with revenue falling 3% from $507m (£256.8m) to a new mark of $491m (£248.7m). RPL fell by 5% to $800,000 (£405,230).
Chairman Matthew Larrabee said the losses were due to a series of large litigation cases that wrapped up early in the year, blaming "an environment where litigation was down nationwide."
Employment powerhouse Littler Mendelson saw revenue climb 28% to $307m after a year of expansion that saw it open in Portland, Orlando, Cleveland and New Haven, adding 220 lawyers to its ranks in the process. However, RPL was down almost 15% to $460,000 (£233,010).
Managing partner Marko Mrkonich said the best-performing areas continued to be cross-border employment issues, payroll and traditional labor law and class actions.
"The total number of class actions being defended passed 300 pending matters at any one time in 2007, up from 250 a year ago," he said.
