New York-based legal powerhouse Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has grown into a global legal giant without sacrificing either productivity or profitability. Last year it grossed $1.6 billion with profits per partner of almost $2 million. Those numbers make Skadden ninth among firms with the highest revenue per lawyer and twelth for profits per partner.
Those figures normally attained by much smaller law firms. With around 1770 lawyers, Skadden is not a boutique by any means and yet in some ways it is run as one. It has maintained its sharp focus on premium corporate work. It has a tight-knit, one-tier partnership and takes a measured approach to growth, hiring just a few lateral partners at a time and schooling them in the Skadden way of doing business.
