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Four Thousand an Hour Arrives in US Big Law Billing

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Reuters reports the new top line for Susman Godfrey’s trial stars and sets it against peers where rates already crossed three thousand last year. Public filings and prior coverage show Latham partners at just over three thousand and Quinn Emanuel partners near that mark, with associates at some shops topping one thousand six hundred.

Four thousand is not only a flex, but also one that needs to be ‘sold’ to clients. If law firms want this price to clear, they must show time saved, risk shifted and outcomes earned.
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Dechert Raids McDermott With 20‑Partner Team as It Re‑Enters Chicago and Targets Texas

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Dechert has fired the opening shot of 2026’s lateral wars, lifting a 20‑plus partner team – including a top‑ranked complex litigation and accounting defense squad – from McDermott and using it as the launchpad for new offices in Chicago, Dallas and a disputes outpost in Houston.

Dechert has brought in more than 20 lateral partners across litigation, corporate and securities, IP and employment from McDermott Will & Schulte, anchored by a preeminent U.S. complex litigation practice and a Chambers Band 1 accounting defense team.

The group is led by Chicago trial and strategy heavyweight law star Mike Poulos, formerly partner in charge of global strategy and an executive committee member at McDermott, who becomes Dechert’s vice chair and global head of strategy.

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How Lobbying Turned Into Big Business for Top Law Firms in 2025

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Lobbying profits for big law firms - LawFuel

Lobbying Law Leaders John Bowie, LawFuel publisher Big Law’s lobbying arms just posted their richest year on record, powered by Trump-era tariffs, AI and health policy fights—and a Trump‑aligned boutique has muscled past the traditional K Street giants as lobbying becomes a major new profit source for law firms in the US, UK and elsewhere.

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The Largest Law Firms in New York 2026: Latest Rankings & Market Analysis

Best Firms, Headlining, Power Briefs, Press Releases /
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LawFuel Report – Largest Law Firms in New York New York’s legal market continues its dramatic expansion in 2025, with the top firms now employing over 13,000 attorneys—an 8% increase from 2024. For the first time, two firms have exceeded 1,000 attorneys in their New York offices: Kirkland & Ellis with 1,133 lawyers and Davis

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The Largest UK Law Firms 2026 – Who’s Banking What in Big Law

Best Firms, Big Law, Headlining, UK Law /
lawfuel - largest uk law firm report

The UK legal market just keeps getting bigger and richer as deals and US law firms make a major impact on big UK law firms. In 2025, collective revenues for UK law firms sailed past £52 billion, with the big firms at the top hoovering up an ever-larger slice of the pie.
The UK law firm earnings show massive increases for some firms and equally large take-home pay, as we recently reported.
Whether you’re a graduate eyeing that training contract or a GC shopping for counsel, LawFuel’s UK law firm survey looks at who’s who in British Big Law right now.
The Complete UK Law Firm Revenue League 2026 . .
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Britain’s Top Barristers by Pay – The KCs Who Turn Courtroom Skill into Seven Figures

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british barrister earnings

Since I wrote about Britain’s highest-paid barristers a year ago, the select group of the UK’s top barristers continues to expand, with fees commanded that rival top CEOs.

What we didn’t report on was the sort of money received by the elite UK barristers, apart from quoting the Legal Futures report from 2018 that 125 UK barristers earned over £1million all those years ago.

The UK’s highest-paid barristers are more than just courtroom stars. They are strategic advisors, thought leaders, and, increasingly, agents of change in a rapidly evolving legal market.

However there is little publicly available information aout barrister earnings.

With top hourly billing rates hitting £5000 an hour or more, a barrister billing 1500 hours a year (perfectly common for a top law partner) brings home £7.5m.

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BigLaw’s $4.6 Trillion Year Sees Kirkland & Top Firms Dominate

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top law firm salaries

M&A Market Soars to Record $4.6 Trillion Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editor BigLaw firms continue to sit at the top table when it comes to mega deals with the market showing 2025 deals valued at $4.6 trillion in global transaction value – a 49 percent surge over 2024 figures, according to the London Stock Exchange

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One Partner, Seven Million Pounds: Inside Big Law’s New Pay Reality

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Cliffordchance

Big Law’s Seven-Million Pound Question: Who’s Really Winning? A senior partner at a global law firm took home just over seven million pounds last year, according to newly disclosed figures. That is not a LawFuel typo, a bonus anomaly, or a rogue spreadsheet error. It is the modern upper limit of elite legal pay, written

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Big Law’s Capital Squeeze Sees Partners Pay Up, Firms Power On

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Biglawpay

The legal profession has always had a peculiar relationship with money. Partners, after all, are supposed to be owners of their firms, yet increasingly, they’re being asked to prove their commitment with their wallets.

Welcome to the world of capital contributions, where making equity partner isn’t just about your billable hours anymore. It’s about how much cash you can pony up to join the club.
Here’s the thing about Big Law’s approach to partner capital: there isn’t one.

Survey data from about 80 Am Law 200 firms reveals a system that’s, to put it charitably, all over the shop.
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US Law Firms Double Down on Super Size London Takeover

Big Law, Headlining, UK Law /
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US law firms have turned London into their most important international bridgehead, increasing their lawyer ranks in the City by nearly 60 percent over the past decade and reshaping the U.K. legal market in the process.​

The number of lawyers working in London offices of U.S.-headquartered firms rose from 4,889 in 2015 to 7,710 by the end of 2024, a 58 percent increase over ten years.​
In total, 84 U.S. firms now have a London presence, underlining the City’s role as the key European hub for U.S. practices.
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