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Arent Fox to Freeze Associate Salaries on Heels of Double-Digit Growth
Legal Times
January 22, 2009
Even amid the economic storm, some firms are increasing revenues.
Arent Fox reported double-digit growth last year, reporting a revenue of $222.5 million, or a 10.15 percent increase from 2007. Firm Chairman Marc Fleischaker told The Blog of Legal Times that the Los Angeles office did particularly well in 2008 and the addition of "a couple real estate" individuals played a big part in driving up revenue. In September, the firm added four real estate professionals from Nixon Peabody in its Washington, D.C., office.
Fleischaker added that the firm has pre-paid some expenses for 2009, saying that it has paid rent on all of its offices for January.
Despite the revenue growth, Arent Fox's profits per partner stayed virtually stagnant, at a reported 0.13 percent growth. Fleischaker says profit per partner has stayed steady largely due to the increase in associate salaries and the addition of eight more equity partners.
Even with the increased revenue, the firm will be freezing associate salaries. Fleischaker says the move is a precautionary measure as the firm is expecting 2009 to be a "flat year throughout the firm."
"We can always change that if it turns out to be a better year. We wanted to be fair to everyone."
First reported in The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
