BOSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL APRIL 25, 2016

Boston legal giants zoom up list of 100 richest law firms GREG RYAN Goodwin Procter LLP’s revenue Boston Business Journal rose 10.2 percent in 2015 to $866 million, moving the Seaport- Last year was a great time to be bound firm from No. 38 to No. 35 a big corporate law firm in Bos- on the list nationally. Goodwin is ton, as it turns out. the second-largest firm in Massa- Each of the state’s five larg- chusetts behind Ropes. est law firms experienced sub- The fourth-largest law firm in stantial revenue increases in the state, WilmerHale, cracked 2015, according to data from Am Law’s top 20 with national The American . The legal- gross revenue of $1.14 billion. It news publication on Monday had finished No. 25 last year. The revealed its annual Am Law 100 fifth-largest firm, Morgan Lewis list, which ranks the 100 high- & Bockius LLP, saw a 40 percent est-grossing U.S. law firms based increase in revenue thanks to its on revenue. absorption of hundreds of for- Ropes & Gray LLP, the larg- mer Bingham McCutchen LLP at- est law firm in Massachusetts, torneys. It jumped from No. 12 to jumped nine spots on the list to No. 8. No. 13 — among the largest im- A few other law firms with a provements of any firm this year large presence in Boston, includ- — thanks to a 8.8 percent revenue ing Holland & Knight LLP, Nixon increase. The firm finished 2015 Robert Bodian, managing member at Peabody LLP, Locke Lord LLP and with $1.39 billion in gross rev- Mintz Levin, led his firm back to a spot Fish & Richardson PC, climbed enue. on the Am Law 100. the rankings. Two firms with a At the other end of the list, sizable Boston office, K&L Gates with $360 million in revenue, the list even as growth at “Big LLP and McDermott Will & Em- Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky Law,” as the country’s largest law ery LLP, experienced revenue & Popeo PC returned to the Am firms are known, slowed down declines of 7 and 0.9 percent, re- Law 100 after falling off last year. overall. The American Lawyer spectively. K&L has been struck Mintz Levin surged from No. 101 described gains in 2015 across with partner departures across to No. 92 on the strength of a 13.9 Big Law as “mediocre” and “so- the country, though its Boston percent revenue boost, powered so,” the least impressive since office has been relatively unaf- in part by a string of lateral hires the height of the Great Reces- fected. from Edwards Wildman Palmer sion. A number of factors have Latham & Watkins LLP, which LLP and elsewhere. With more fueled growth in the Boston le- was founded in and than 300 in Massachu- gal market, including a bustling entered Boston five years ago, setts, Mintz Levin is the third- life sciences industry and a high repeated as the nation’s highest- largest firm in the state. level of mergers and acquisitions ranked firm on the list with $2.7 The Boston firms zoomed up across sectors. billion in revenue in 2015.

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