The US’ top law firms flexed their financial muscles again with double-digit percentage surges in turnover and profits for 2004 as the rest of the world continues to look on worriedly at the robust growth of the US legal market.

As revealed by the April publication of Legal Week’s US rankings, the top 50 collectively billed $32.9bn (£17.4bn) in 2004, twice as much as the UK top 50.