US legal giant Latham & Watkins boosts revenue to record $3.7bn
US law firm Latham & Watkins today announced a revenue boost of 11 per cent to $3.76bn (£2.91bn) for the 2019 calendar year.
Latham, which has been heavily investing in its City office in recent years, became the first law firm to surpass the $3bn revenue mark in 2018.
Its London revenue is understood to have grown more than 15 per cent this year to around $450m.
Latham’s 2019 revenue of $3.76bn takes it slightly ahead of US rival Kirkland & Ellis which announced record revenue of $3.75bn last year, but has yet to release financial data for 2019.
Latham and Kirkland – which are the two largest law firms in the world by turnover – have grown exponentially over the last decade.
That growth has been fuelled by their links to US private equity funds which have raised and spent record amounts of cash in recent years.
Latham said its 514 equity partners were paid an average of $3.78m last year, up 9.5 per cent on the previous year.
Chair and managing partner Rich Trobman said: “We continue to deepen our client relationships, by drawing on outstanding teamwork to provide innovative counsel on a global scale. It is this culture of teamwork, coupled with a commitment to delivering excellent client service – matter by matter, across practices and regions – that have allowed us to capture market share.”
The firm, which has its roots in California, has expanded aggressively in London over the last few years as part of a Europe-wide growth push.
Yesterday, Latham announced the hire of Freshfields M&A partner Sam Newhouse in London.
Latham’s growth in London had previously been off the back of its elite private equity and finance teams, but the firm is now targeting big-ticket mainstream M&A work – traditionally the preserve of the so-called Magic Circle firms Slaughter and May, Freshfields, Linklaters and Clifford Chance.
The US firms, with their roots in the world’s largest legal market and connections with US funds and corporates, are much more profitable than their Magic Circle rivals.
Last year Freshfields profit per equity partner was £1.8m, while Linklaters was £1.7m.
The US firms have used that financial firepower to lure partners from the Magic Circle.
Recent hires for Latham include structured finance partner Steve Curtis from Clifford Chance and insurance M&A partner Victoria Sander from Linklaters.
Recent deals for Latham include advising the underwriters on Saudi Aramco’s mammoth initial public offering and acting for private equity firm Silver Lake Partners in its $500m acquisition of a stake in Manchester City’s parent company.