Merger integration and an enormous contingency fee made 2012 a major comeback year for Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. Revenue increased $44.5 million and net income increased $32.5 million, causing PPEP to shoot up $230,000, to $860,000. That followed dips in revenue and profit in 2011 after the January 2011 merger of Atlantas Kilpatrick Stockton with San Franciscos Townsend and Townsend and Crew. Last year a federal judge awarded Kilpatrick and its co-counsel, Washington banking lawyer Dennis Gingold, $99 million in attorneys fees for a historic class action, Cobell v. Salazar. Kilpatrick and Gingold represented more than 500,000 American Indians who sued the U.S. Department of the Interior for decades of mismanaging their trust accounts for oil, gas and mineral leases on tribal land. After 15 years of litigation, Congress in late 2010 approved a $3.4 billion settlementthe largest ever won against the federal government. Because of a confidentiality agreement, Kilpatrick chairman Paul Aguggia would not say how much of a contingency fee Kilpatrick received, but he said it was a big part of the boost to the bottom and top lines. Even without the Cobell fee, Aguggia said, the firms revenue per lawyer would have increased 6 percent and profits per equity partner would have increased about 4.5 percent, which means Kilpatrick booked almost $38 million in revenue from the Cobell case. Aguggia said the firms intellectual property and prosecution practices were strong and transactional work increased.
Reported by Meredith Hobbs
*Variances shown are in comparison to 2011.
| MONEY | ||
| Revenue | $406,500,000 |  12.3% |
| Revenue per Lawyer | $735,000 | 16.7% |
| Profit per equity partner | $860,000 | 36.5% |
LAWYERS |
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| Total lawyers | 552 |  24 |
| Atlanta lawyers | 189/34% | 14% |
| Partners | 261 | 12 |
| Equity partners | 160 | 6 |
| Atlanta size rank among firms offices | No. 1 |
Clients
