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Revenue, Profits Up at K&L Gates
The American Lawyer
January 22, 2009
K&L Gates saw both revenues and profits increase in 2008, the firm reports. The Pittsburgh-based firm increased its gross revenue by 27 percent to $959.5 million, up from $755 million, while profits per equity partner grew by almost 7 percent to $855,000, compared with $800,000 in 2007.
In the course of the year the firm grew in headcount from 1,235 to 1,552. The boost came, in large part, from mergers with Texas firm Hughes & Luce and Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman in North Carolina. K&L Gates also added overseas offices in Paris and Shanghai. Although the number of equity partners grew from 243 to 284, the nonequity ranks saw a much larger increase, jumping from 365 to 495.
Firm Chairman Peter Kalis describes 2008 as a year of "extraordinary growth" in revenues and "incremental growth" in profits. "Our success in 2008 arose from client focus and a law firm platform diversified across nations, markets, currencies, industries and practices," he says.
While K&L Gates missed out on breaking the $1 billion mark, this year's numbers are further confirmation of the firm's long-term trend of year-on-year growth. In 2006 its revenues stood at just under $500 million, placing it at No. 50 in The Am Law 100. Growth in profitability has been comparatively slow over the same period, ticking up from $780,000 to $854,000. Kalis insisted that the firm's approach to profitability was to "show positive growth year after year after year" and that it had managed to do that throughout his time as chairman.
The firm continued its expansionist goals at the start of 2009, announcing the launch of a new office in Frankfurt. The addition brings the number of international offices to eight, compared with 21 offices in the United States. The K&L Gates equity partners are also due to vote Jan. 30 on a merger with Chicago's Bell, Boyd & Lloyd, a union that will add about 225 attorneys and just under $130 million in revenues.
Kalis admits that the firm was looking at its options to open in the Middle East and that a number of practices would benefit from a K&L Gates office in Singapore. Despite those 21 offices in the U.S., Kalis admitted that there were still some planks missing in the firm's domestic network such as Houston, although he stressed that the firm was not in any talks to open there.
This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.
