Despite surges in profits and turnover, US firms are stringently guarding their equity according to findings from Citigroup, with the number of equity partners at the US’ top practices growing by just 2.5% in 2004. Made by Citigroup’s Private Bank, the study is drawn from a survey of 143 of the US’ top 200 law firms. The rate of growth of equity partners is down from 3% in 2002.
The latest figure is down from a high in 2000 when there was a 4.5% growth in partner promotions. It suggests tighter equity control is at least partially behind the double-digit growth in partner profits of most leading US firms over the same period. Average profits per partner were up by 8.9% in 2004, with equity partners netting an average $770,000 (£403,000) according to Citigroup.
