Am Law 200 Weathers the Storm in a Complicated 2022 Market

ALM Publishes Annual Ranking of 200 Highest-Grossing Law Firms

New York, NY – May 23, 2023 — ALM has released the 2023 Am Law 200 data, providing a detailed look at the financial health of the industry’s largest law firms.

The 200 largest firms in the country saw gross revenue increase by 2.9 percent, and head count by 4.2 percent. Net income declined by 2.6 percent, profits per equity partner decreased by 3.1 percent, and revenue per lawyer moved down 1.3 percent. 

The 2023 Am Law 200 report, focused on the Second Hundred largest firms, will go online May 23 at https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/rankings/ and can be found in the June print issue of The American Lawyer. The Am Law 100 results, outlining the 100 largest firms in the country, went live last month.

“With huge dips in the deal work that drove so much of the growth in 2020 and 2021, it’s all the more impressive that The Am Law 200 were able to show gains in topline revenue in 2022 along with only slight declines from historic profitability,” said Gina Passarella, Editor-in-Chief, Global Legal Brands. “It comes as less of a surprise, however, that the smaller Second Hundred firms outperformed The Am Law 100 in 2022 given the former rely less heavily on that more volatile deal work.”

The ALM Intelligence team assisted in compiling the Am Law 200 data with the use of Law.com Compass and provided analysis in conjunction with The American Lawyer for its June issue.

“Given the financial performance metrics generated by Am Law 200 firms during the pandemic, we expected some regression to the mean in 2022,” said Michelle Matroni, Sr. Research Manager and Legal Rankings Lead for ALM. “Instead, the results exemplified a divergent market. While only 25% of Am Law 200 firms experienced a drop in gross revenue, 43% generated negative revenue per lawyer growth. Similarly, 55% of firms experienced a reduction in profits per equity partner, while 68% of firms produced negative profits per lawyer growth.”

To request access to the Am Law 2023 data from Law.com Compass or to purchase directly, please visit: Surveys & Rankings.

Explore ALM’s award-winning insights on the results on The American Lawyer: https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/am-law-200/.

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Tags: Legal Rankings, Law Firm Profitability, Am Law 200, Am Law 100, Law Firm Competition, Large Law