The American Lawyer debuted its firm finance reporting 25 years ago, examining the nation’s 51 highest-grossing firms in its July/August 1985 issue. (It was billed as The Am Law 50, but there was a four-way tie at the bottom of the list.) Since then, the phrases “revenue per lawyer” and “profits per partner” have been added to lawyers’ lexicons; “Am Law profitability index,” not so much. Here’s a look at how 1985′s Am Law 50 (click here to download a PDF of the ranking) stacks up against the top 50 firms on this year’s Am Law 100 (this year’s ranking by Gross Revenue is available here.)
