Blank Rome Boosts Revenue on Steady Head Count, Joins $1M PEP Club
Blank Rome Managing Partner and CEO Grant S. Palmer spoke with The Legal Intelligencer regarding the Firm’s successful year, filled with notable milestones, and plans for 2020 and beyond.
Article Excerpt:
In 2019, Blank Rome checked two items off the list of milestones many East Coast Big Law firms have strived for: opening an office in Chicago and surpassing $1 million in profits per equity partner.
The Philadelphia-based Am Law 100 firm grew gross revenue by 7% in 2019, reaching $474 million. Revenue per lawyer was up 6.6%, to $857,000.
Profits per equity partner grew 8.1% from 2018, to $1.01 million. The jump was attributable in part to a smaller equity tier—the firm had 135 equity partners in 2019 compared with 148 the year before, a 9.1% decrease, and net income declined 1.8% to $135.7 million.
CEO Grant Palmer said $1 million in PEP is certainly a milestone, but the firm is more focused on revenue per lawyer from a strategic perspective and did not intentionally shrink its equity partner ranks to meet that number. He said Blank Rome enjoyed a healthy increase in demand, even as demand growth was sluggish industrywide, with hours up 3.5% firmwide and hours per lawyer up 3.3%.
He said expenses were up only slightly, and the firm prepaid some 2020 expenses as it aims to do each year. Rates increased by about 3% firmwide, he said.
“Blank Rome Boosts Revenue on Steady Head Count, Joins $1M PEP Club,” by Lizzy McLellan was published in The Legal Intelligencer and The American Lawyer on March 3, 2020.