The new Am Law 100 results are in and they are not pretty. 

Lessons of The Am Law 100: Nothing Grows Forever by Aric Press and John O’Connor (The American Lawyer, April 29, 2009). As I commented last year, BigLaw CIOs who want a seat at the management table need to follow the money (and data). Read the article and accompanying tables but here are highlights:

  • 2008 results do not show the full impact of the downturn, which started mid-year
  • Gross revenue was up 4.1% to $67 billion, lawyer headcount grew faster at 5.4% to 82,000, and profits per partner fell by 4.3%
  • A falling tide affected firms fairly uniformly; AmLaw reports little change in relative firm rankings
  • The authors outline several interesting “performance points” to ponder, including controlling headcount, the future profitability of bulge bracket NYC firms, the likely vulnerability of non-equity partners.

[Side note: I Tweeted the preview Webinar yesterday, key word #amlaw100, at http://twitter.com/ronfriedmann.]

Update – Sponsored Link (5 May 08): Click here to buy the 2009 AmLaw 100 downloadable file, which provides a full set of data for analysis in Excel..