In August, Robert Hays, the longtime chairman of King & Spalding, arrived at the Atlanta-based firm’s midtown Manhattan offices to update partners on the progress of the firm’s latest growth plan, dubbed Strategy 3.0, which includes increasing net income by 50 percent in four years.

If that sounds remarkably ambitious, you haven’t been paying attention to Hays—or his law firm—over the last decade. While many firms have struggled to hold the course since the recession, King & Spalding has surged ahead, barreling past $1 billion in revenue and achieving triple-digit profit growth. Maintaining that trajectory won’t be easy. But the firm has made a habit of overcoming long odds.