Global law firm Hogan Lovells on Tuesday said it generated record revenues and partner profits in 2023, returning to a growth trajectory amid a broader rebound in profitability among large law firms.
Average profit per equity partner, which had declined from 2021 to 2022, increased by about 20% to $2.74 million in 2023, Hogan Lovells said. Global revenue reached $2.68 billion last year, the firm said, after a dip to about $2.43 billion in 2022.
Many U.S. and global law firms experienced relative declines in 2022, when demand for M&A and other work slackened after a busier 2020 and 2021.
Figures recently released by legal industry analysts, including from Wells Fargo's Legal Specialty Group and the Thomson Reuters Law Firm Financial Index, show that 2023 was a brighter year for law firms on average in terms of both revenue and profitability growth.
The results are uneven across firms, though. A new survey by Citigroup's Citi Global Wealth at Work Law Firm Group found that while average profits per equity partner grew by 6.6% last year among those surveyed, 39% of the firms reported a decline in profits per equity partner, according to leaders at Citi.
Hogan Lovells CEO Miguel Zaldivar credited the firm's geographic, practice area and industry sector mix as among the factors that contributed to its 2023 growth.
"We're not too invested to any sector in particular. If you're too invested into, let's say, financial markets, and there's a downturn, the firm suffers. But we have a balance," he said.
Zaldivar, who is based in Washington, D.C., in September was reappointed to a second four-year term that will end June 2028.
The firm was created through a 2010 merger between U.S. law firm Hogan & Hartson and UK law firm Lovells. It now has more than 2,600 lawyers globally.
Looking forward to this year, Zaldivar said the firm aims to double down in certain areas including life sciences, technology, energy, financial and mobility, and grow in New York, California and Texas.
Hogan Lovells in November brought on nearly 70 lawyers from New York-based law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, which dissolved and is in the process of winding down.
Zaldivar said that the group did not have an impact on Hogan Lovells' 2023 figures but that the lawyers are helping achieve 2024 goals.
Hogan Lovells announced other new hires as recently as Monday. In Italy, the firm brought on 23 finance and M&A lawyers, including six partners, from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in Milan and Rome.
The firm on Monday also hired a capital markets partner from Cooley in New York and a tax partner from Foley Hoag in Boston.
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