Morning Briefing: Elite law firms dominate revenue increases

Elite law firms dominate revenue increases
Revenue increases in US law firms, including many international players, are largely being driven by the elite firms. Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group has released figures that reveal last year the 15 most profitable firms grew their revenue by 6.6 per cent whereas another 170 firms saw growth of 4 per cent. “I think this gap is becoming insurmountable,” legal consultant Bruce MacEwen told the Wall Street Journal. “If you’re a general practice, national-destination-for-nothing-in-particular law firm,” he said, it’s easy to “fall behind”. Across the profession average increase in profit per equity partner was 5.7 per cent in 2014.
 
Foreign law firms should be allowed to operate in India says lawyers group
India’s Supreme Court started the week seeking a response from the Bar Council of India after a challenge to a judgement that foreign law firms should not be allowed to open liaison offices in India. The challenge comes six years after the Bombay court ruling and has been brought by a group called Global Indian Lawyers. It wants to promote the growth of the Indian legal profession and believes that to achieve that internationally means allowing foreign firms to practice there. It argues in its challenge to the ruling that many Indian lawyers who have gone abroad to expand their experience at foreign firms would return if those firms were able to operate in India.
 
International law firm feels foolish after April fool prank backfires
The management of international law firm were forced to apologise to staff after an April fool joke backfired. More than 1,000 staff at Weil Gotshal & Manges received the email from management joking that they would not be sent email or other messages between the hours of 11pm and 6am or at weekends. Unfortunately the joke was not taken well by the recipients prompting the management to send another email apologising and reiterating how seriously the firm takes work-life balance.
 
15 new partners at Skadden
Skadden has announced its 2015 partnership promotions including one in Asia-Pac. Haiping Lee from the firm’s Hong Kong office is one of only three of the new partners outside of the US; the others are in London and Sao Paulo. Lee will be relocating to Shanghai.