Looking back at 2023, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner global CEO Steve Baumer said he was happy with the firm’s “balanced performance,” with countercyclical practices offsetting slow demand in “interest rate-challenged” practices such as real estate and financial transactions that remain hamstrung by high interest rates.

The global law firm posted a 0.6% decline in revenue last year at $840 million and a 0.1% decline in RPL, as head count held roughly flat at 1,185 (full-time equivalent) attorneys. A 5.7% decline in equity partners, which Baumer attributed to normal attrition, helped push PEP into the black with a 0.8% gain to $950,000.