Economic pessimism hasn't troubled legal sector
Region's largest firms expanding, hiring new lawyers at fevered pace
04/15/2001
By Mark Curriden / The Dallas Morning News
MORE LAWYERS
The 10 largest Dallas-based law firms have exploded in size during the last six years:
Firm Name / 2001 lawyers / * 1995 lawyers
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld / 1,038 / 524
Jenkens & Gilchrist / 611 / 223
Locke Liddell & Sapp / 422 / 193
Haynes and Boone / 397 / 217
Thompson & Knight / 326 / 198
Gardere & Wynne / 287 / 193
Jackson Walker / 273 / 162
Winstead Sechrest & Minick / 261 / 159
Strasburger & Price / 218 / 180
Hughes & Luce / 158 / 137
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research * Ranked in terms of total lawyers [...]
The region's largest law firms, although slightly concerned about the slowing economy, said they plan to continue their frenzied pace of adding more lawyers in the coming year. [...]
Law firms say they plan to extend their recent trends of hiring record numbers of young associates directly out of law school.
The leaders at the biggest Dallas law practices also say they expect to quicken the pace at which they acquire smaller law firms that help them meet certain needs. [...]
"Survivors in this legal business will be those that grow and dominate specific practice areas," he said.
During the last few years, expansion has definitely been the agenda of the large law firms. The city's biggest firms have doubled and tripled in size.
None has grown faster than Jenkens & Gilchrist, which employed 223 attorneys in 1995 and reported revenue of $52 million. This year, the firm boasts 611 lawyers and $300 million in revenue. [...]
Over the last six years, as legal work grew, so did the need for more lawyers. Law firm leaders quickly found themselves competing with dot.coms and other high-tech groups for the best and brightest law school graduates.
To attract top graduates, firms dramatically increased salaries. Six years ago, a lawyer fresh out of law school earned $60,000 a year at one of the big firms. Starting pay has now skyrocketed to $125,000, plus many extra benefits. [...] >>
CB, the last time this sort of article was printed in Dallas was 1989, just before these same law firms went into a cliff dive for the next 5 years. One of the safest macro-bets going is to bet against the large law firms, they are ALWAYS the last to the party - and now they have all those $125k first-year associates to float. Regards, Ken |
