BCLP Taps Record $912 Million Revenue After Post-Merger Overhaul

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner recorded its best financial year in history in 2025 after a post-merger overhaul that slashed the firm’s headcount.

BCLP generated $912 million in revenue and $1.38 million in profits per equity partner last year, according to the firm. That equates to a 6% increase in revenue and a 33% boost in partner profits, as the firm kept costs flat.

“We were really looking at efficiencies—how can we generate revenue increases on an efficient basis,” Chief Operating Officer Trevor Varnes said in an interview. “The work that we did in 2025 will continue to pay dividends in terms of creating that efficient cost structure going forward.”

The results bolster firm leaders’ view that they reversed a performance slump after a 2018 merger between St. Louis’ Bryan Cave and London’s Berwin Leighton Paisner. The turn-around, along with the reduction in lawyer and staff headcount, included a focus on key practice areas such as agribusiness and entertainment.

“The work done in 2023 and 2024 has really come through,” Varnes said. The number of equity partners at the firm declined more than 3% last year and is down by 37% since the merger, helping to boost the profits per equity partner.

Global Chief Executive Officer Steve Baumer said the growth in partner profits is a barometer of the firm’s financial strength “as we’re going out into the market and trying to recruit talented lateral partners.”

Baumer faulted global volatility—the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of an office in Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—for initially slowing the firm’s financial progress after the merger.

Revenue languished under the $900 million mark, declining more than 6% by 2023. The drop came during a massive growth clip for many of BCLP’s rivals: The country’s 200 largest firm saw revenue jump by more than 39% over the same period, according to data from The American Lawyer.

BCLP countered by slashing its payrolls. The firm cut 8% of its support staff last year and laid off 47 legal secretaries and administrative staff in 2023. Its lawyer roster is down nearly 30% from a post-merger high of more than 1,400, according to data from The American Lawyer.

Steve Baumer

Some of the departures were strategic, Baumer said.

“You have to evaluate who is best equipped to serve client needs,” he said. “There has been a combination of very intentional actions that we’ve taken to make sure we had the best-equipped teams.”

BCLP does not expect more staff reductions in the near term, Varnes said.

Priority Sectors

Baumer is a veteran Bryan Cave partner who hails from the firm’s transactions practice. He took the leadership reins as CEO in 2024 after serving as co-chair with Berwin Leighton Paisner partner Lisa Mayhew. That year the firm also rebranded itself as BCLP and created its tagline of “client intelligent.”

The brand shift indicated a firmwide business development strategy to expand the range of services for clients in priority industries, according to Baumer. He pointed to clients in energy transition, real estate, financial services, food and agribusiness, and sports, media and entertainment as focus sectors.

Trevor Varnes

The more than 1,000-lawyer firm modernized operations by hiring a team of data engineers and creating a new role to oversee the firm’s adoption of artificial intelligence, Varnes said. This month it named London-based M&A partner Nick Myatt as legal innovation, knowledge and practice strategy partner.

BCLP last year announced expansion plans in Saudi Arabia by opening offices in capital city Riyadh and port city Al-Khobar, angling for the region’s infrastructure work. The firm closed Singapore and Hong Kong offices in September, the firm said.

The firm’s notable clients include Monsanto, the agrochemical company acquired by Bayer AG in 2018, and Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, which BCLP’s lawyers represented in a $1 billion investment in Mexican beverage brand Modelo.