The firm reported global revenue of $1.02bn for the last financial year, up 9 per cent from 2014 and 18 per cent from two years ago. Net profit grew 12 per cent to $447.6m, lifting average profit per equity partner from $2.36m to $2.5m. Though the firm's London office is yet to report its own revenue results, it enjoyed a 14 per cent turnover hike in the 2014 financial year from $37.4m to $42.6m.

Key achievements

The firm attributes its robust performance over the last year to an expansion of its partnership and an accretion of work across six high-value priority areas: global disputes, government investigations, energy, financial institutions, life sciences and health care, and technology. Among the firm's highlights for 2015 were leading on Delivery Hero's $589m acquisition of Yemeksepeti and Islamic financing for a $2bn industrial gas project in Saudi Arabia, as well as the firm's Tokyo opening. King & Spalding added 33 lateral partners last year, up from 25 in 2014, and promoted 24 new partners for this year.

'No growth, no fun'

Chairman Richard Hays tempered the strong revenue result with a reminder that the legal marketplace remains mostly flat. 'The “no growth” economy is no fun. Unfortunately it looks like an eighth year in a row of a weak global economy. We are prepared for it,' he commented. Sources: Legal Week; The Lawyer