If 2017 was a good year for law firms, 2018 was better. On the heels of a year considered to be the strongest for the Am Law 100 since the Great Recession, the nation’s top law firms took their performance a step further. On aggregate, revenue grew at a muscular 8 percent clip over the last year, hitting a record $98.7 billion. That’s well past the 5.5 percent growth rate from 2017, the previous high-water mark in the post-recession new normal.
Beyond gross revenue, the Am Law 100 also saw a jump in revenue per lawyer. When growth in RPL, often considered the best barometer of law firm financial health, slowed to 1.5 percent in 2016, it sowed concern that a slump was brewing. But the overall figure accelerated first by 3.2 percent in 2017 and now by 4.2 percent in 2018, the highest growth since 2010. The average for the Am Law 100 is now at $975,982.