The American Lawyer’s list of the second hundred of top law firms, a supplemental list to the Amlaw 100 list, has shown a widening gap in recent years. With the release of the 2008 Amlaw list, the gap was remained and grown. This isn’t to say there hasn’t been any solid growth, with a 10% increase in gross revenue, 5.3 percent per lawyer, and 3 percent per partner.

While percentage growth increases  among firms remain solid, the real gap shows in the actual profit numbers. The Amlaw 100 Firms profit per partner averages at $1.21 million, which is almost double that of the $624 million average earned per partner in the 200 list.

The total profit for the second hundred of firms was actually higher than that of the first, but the revenue generated per lawyer came out to be around half that of the first hundred mainly due to the fact that they employ twice as many lawyers. The profit for equity partners also was half that of the top hundred.

It’s easy to say there’s a gap between the top law firms, but there’s still the fact that they are the top. With so much competition in the Law Industry it’s still an amazing achievement to have made it even on to the top 200 list, or even the top 500.

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