After 20 years as chair of Latham & Watkins, Robert Dell steps down next week. He leaves behind a remarkable record. On his watch, the firm grew from 580 to 2,100 lawyers, from 11 to 31 offices, from gross revenue of $263 million to $2.3 billion, which moved it from ninth to third place on The Am Law 100.
He leaves behind wealthier partners: Latham is now one of the 21 superrich big firms, which log profits per partner of more than $2 million and revenue per lawyer of at least $1 million. He leaves with the admiration of his competitors: In 2006, when we asked the heads of The Am Law 200 which firm they admired the most, Latham and Dell won in a runaway. And perhaps most important, he leaves behind a record of transformational public service: In two decades, Latham moved from ranking 72nd to ranking 22nd in The American Lawyer’s annual tally of pro bono work, moving from performing 15,327 hours in 2004 to 138,553 in 2013.
