California’s elite technology firms between them lost more than $200m of fee income in 2002, according to new research which shows revenues at the worst-hit firm – Brobeck Phleger & Harrison – falling nearly $100m on its 2001 figures.

Research from San Francisco’s The Recorder on the financial performance of the 10 biggest law firms in the Bay Area, home to the once-thriving US technology specialists, shows the firms saw a net fall in fee income of $185m in 2002.