Reed Smith has posted the best financial results in its nearly 150-year history for 2024, with global revenue exceeding $1.5bn and profit per equity partner (PEP) rising 13.8% to $1.8m. 

The Pittsburgh-based firm’s turnover grew from $1.43bn the year before, which it achieved despite having fewer timekeepers in 2024 than in 2023.

Revenue per lawyer (RPL) also grew 11.5% to break the $1m mark. The firm pointed to increased client demand and its focus on investing in high-growth areas and enhancing core business efficiency, including through its use of AI. 

“Our clients are turning to us for complex, high-value work, and we’ve expanded the range of services we provide to meet their evolving business needs,” said Casey Ryan, Reed Smith’s global managing partner. “We are building on the success of 2024 and have continued the momentum, recently opening offices in Atlanta and Denver. The power of our global platform and industry focus continue to be among our greatest strengths.”

Reed Smith’s financial industry group led the firm’s industry groups in revenue, while its insurance recovery, litigation, managed care, entertainment and media, and bankruptcy and restructuring practices also had “stellar” years, the firm said. 

An uptick in M&A and transactional work also drove an “active” year for the firm’s private equity and corporate practices, which worked on deals including US music company Concord’s £1.1bn takeover of British music royalties investment fund Hipgnosis. 

The firm’s London office, which had reported revenue dips for the past two years, bounced back with revenue growth of 15% to $247m, while RPL shot up nearly 30% to $947k.

The firm chalked up the result to investments in its City office – its largest with more than 350 lawyers – across private equity, corporate, finance and energy over the past two years. Partners the firm has recruited in London include private equity specialist Tom Whelan, who joined from McDermott Will & Emery, and capital markets lawyer Mark Drury, who joined in late 2023 from Linklaters. 

“We were well placed to capitalise on the uptick in deal activity in the second half of 2024,” said Gregor Pryor, the firm’s Europe and Middle East managing partner. “Our London office’s recent move to Blossom Yard, coupled with our focus on driving activity in our corporate and private equity practices through our industry strengths, brought renewed energy to the office. The new space encourages collaboration and helps teams work more closely together in person.”

The firm also pointed to its tech investments, noting that more than 750 of its lawyers and staff had completed AI certification on its primary AI platform and that this had helped to improve service delivery. 

The firm has had a strong start to 2025, opening in Atlanta in January with hires from Greenberg Traurig and local firm Morris Manning and in Denver last month with 10 partners recruited from Greenberg and Foley Hoag, among others.

The launches took Reed Smith’s US office count to 20 and contributed to the firm adding more than 20 private equity and finance partners so far this year as it positions itself to take on greater deal flow and new client engagements.

Overall, the firm has added 72 lawyers globally, including 28 partners, so far this year. It also promoted 24 lawyers to partner and 31 to counsel.