Cooley has posted a 7 per cent rise in total revenue for 2016, a drop on the previous year’s 14 per cent hike and also down on 2014’s 19 per cent increase.
Despite the slower rate of growth the West Coast US firm is nearing the $1bn revenue mark, posting a total turnover for 2016 of $974m.
Average profit per equity partner (PEP) rose by 4 per cent to $1.96m while average revenue per lawyer was static at $1.14m. The firm added 23 lateral partners in 2016 including four in London, six in Palo Alto and nine in New York.
Deal highlights for the firm in 2016 included advising biopharmaceutical company Medivation on its $14bn sale to Pfizer, the largest transaction in Cooley history; on 193 venture funds with closings amounting to more than $19bn; and acting as UK counsel and US regulatory counsel to the Vistria Group and Apollo Global Management on the $1.1bn acquisition of Apollo Education Group.
In London Cooley is continuing to show rapid growth since launching two years ago with the hire of 55 lawyers from Morrison & Foerster and Edwards Wildman.
City turnover hit $47m last year, a rise powered by a number of laterals and client wins.
The firm added four lateral partners in 2016 including Sullivan & Cromwell white collar crime specialist Louise Delahunty, increasing partner headcount in the UK to 28 while total lawyer headcount reached 80, a growth of 45 per cent since January 2015 and more than 20 per cent since the start of 2016.
Last month two of the firm’s lawyers, Natasha Kaye and Sascha Grimm, were recognised in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 2017.
The post Cooley London growth continues as firm nears $1bn appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal News and Jobs | Advancing the business of law.