Paul Weiss - Not a Public Company, But Plenty of Scrutiny of Its Financials

Bloomberg Law journalist Roy Strom has spent a lot of time analyzing law firm Paul Weiss' financials. In today's column Strom refers to that as the law firm's "financial machine." 

And, according to Strom that machine is humming. He notes:

"If the firm over time can increase its leverage somewhere closer to six lawyers per equity partner ... Paul Weiss will be an even greater financial machine than it already is ... Even while adding to its equity partnership, the firm was able to grow its profits per equity partner significantly. That metric is up 30% since 2018, to nearly $6.6 million last year."

Back in 2022, Strom was at the same thing - financials. The headline he wrote was about Paul Weiss cracking the $6 million Profits Per Equity Partner.

If the finances weren't so good that would be interpreted as a negative about the overall performance - aka actual legal work - of the law firm. And this isn't a public company. It is accepted that a public company would undergo such scrutiny.

Such attention to financials puts law firms such as Paul Weiss between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand, they better produce those numbers. 

On the other hand, they are castigated by critics such as David Enrich for a preoccupation with profits. Enrich's 2022 book "Servants of the Damned" positions and packages large law firms are having mutated into ATM machines for equity partners to use. The knock on Paul Weiss goes several pages.

Let's put it this way: Isn't it a sad irony that Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp has to defend the firm's accomplishments - that is, its profitability?

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