Willkie’s Unexpected Growth Run Sees Firm Go Deep in New Markets

Welcome back to the Big Law Business column. I’m Roy Strom, and today we look at how one firm entered multiple new legal markets. Sign up for Business & Practice, a free morning newsletter from Bloomberg Law.

It wasn’t obvious in late 2019 that Willkie Farr & Gallagher was on the brink of a breakout.

Willkie had lingered over the previous decade near the midpoint of the 100 largest law firms by revenue. And it took a black eye in October that year, when former co-chairman Gordon Caplan was sentenced to a month in prison as part of the Varsity Blues college admissions scheme.

Five years later, the New York-founded firm has put the embarrassing scandal in the rearview mirror. It’s also growing in ways few firms can match.

Willkie jumped nearly 20 spots on the list of largest US law firms from 2019 to 2023, according to data from The American Lawyer. No other firm gained as much ground during that time without completing a merger.

The surge highlights a relatively new strategy targeting aggressive growth in major markets, including Chicago, New York, and throughout California. Willkie has added more than 100 lawyers in each of those markets since the start of 2020, according to data from Leopard Solutions, including some with deep relationships to major clients and the legal profession in their cities.

The firm’s profitability metrics have yet to catch up, despite adopting a tier of non-equity partners that is often viewed as a way to boost equity partner pay. Equity partners in 2023 earned nearly $3.9 million on average, according to The American Lawyer. That was 25th best among the top 100 firms, down from 20th in 2019.

Willkie’s non-equity tier has grown to more than 120 lawyers since it was established in 2018. Still, the size of its equity partnership has grown more than most firms—from 148 in 2019 to 205 most recently—while equity ranks have stagnated or even declined across rival firms.

The firm has continued its hiring spree this year, bringing on entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband.

Willkie added a three-partner white-collar investigations team from Mayer Brown earlier this month and added partner trio in Germany. It hired yet another three-partner team this week, this time from Jenner & Block.

Lee Wolosky, a litigator and former US ambassador, is part of that group. He said litigation now accounts for about a third of the firm’s revenue, and he wants to help continue that growth. He said he also noticed the firm’s growth in California, Texas, Chicago, and internationally.

“It’s been remarkable to watch all of California pop up out of nothing,” he said. “Now I think the focus significantly is on Texas.”

The Lone Star State has been a tough nut to crack for many firms. Willkie hasn’t yet made significant strides: The firm has about 45 lawyers in Houston and Dallas, where it opened an office last year.

The firm’s surprise hire of Craig Martin in March 2020 was an inflection point. The former Jenner & Block chairman launched Willkie’s Chicago office, along with five other partners.

Martin brought with him deep relationships with major clients, including Aon, General Dynamics, MacAndrews & Forbes, and United Airlines. He joined the board of directors of Henry Crown and Co., the private investment office for one of America’s wealthiest families that’s also active across Chicago civic society, last month.

Willkie’s Chicago office initially handled litigation, investigations, private wealth, and corporate governance matters. Much of the Chicago growth since has been to add practice groups to service clients more broadly, Martin said in an interview. The firm has hired transactional or corporate partners from DLA Piper, White & Case, Mayer Brown, and others, not to mention Jenner. The Windy City office now has 103 lawyers, Martin said.

“Our client base had demand for legal services with their trusted advisers for things like private equity, private credit, capital markets, strategic M&A, real estate transactions, finance transactions and fund formation,” Martin said. “So this is a response to client demand that we wanted to be able to meet with an A+ Wall Street-style firm that is global.”

A similar story played out in Los Angeles after the firm hired a three-partner team from Venable LLP in late 2021. The office, led by chair of the firm’s entertainment litigation practice Alex Weingarten, now has 116 lawyers, he said in an interview.

Weingarten attributed the firm’s growth to its connections with the Los Angeles business and legal community. Those ties helped with the recent recruitment of Jason Linder, the white-collar partner who joined from Mayer Brown.

An unnamed client told a Willkie partner that Linder was its go-to advisor for investigations, prompting the firm to look into recruiting Linder, according to Weingarten. He and Linder both serve on the board of the LA pro bono legal organization Ben Tzedek, helping facilitate discussions about a move.

Weingarten’s relationship with Emhoff, meanwhile, dates back 20 years, he said. The two worked together at Venable and Emhoff also has ties to Ben Tzedek.

“A lot of firms will transplant people from other offices and think you can grow it that way,” Weingarten said. “The lawyers we have in LA are of LA.”

Those lawyers moved to a new Century City office in October that will have space for about 160 lawyers after renovations. At the current growth rate, it could be full soon.

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That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading and please send me your thoughts, critiques, and tips.