The Am Law 100 2011 – American Lawyer.com: “After watching profits per partner sink 4.3 percent in 2008 and revive only 0.3 percent in 2009, Am Law 100 firms finally posted a healthy increase–8.4 percent–in 2010. But much of that gain is attributable to firms’ aggressive cost-control measures, especially in the area of headcount, which dropped 2.7 percent over 2009. As a result, growth in revenue per lawyer–the most reliable measure of the overall financial health of law firms–was more tepid, 4.4 percent. Gross revenue rose 4 percent in 2010, in effect making up for the 3.4 percent loss The Am Law 100 posted in 2009, as firms benefited from the nascent recovery in capital markets and M&A. However, much of that growth came from two giants–DLA Piper and Hogan Lovells, a pair of vereins whose worldwide revenues were included in this year’s report for the first time, due to a change in our methodology. Leaving out those two anomalies, The AmLaw 100’s average gross revenue increased a meager 1.4 percent in 2010.”