NJ Top 40: New Jersey’s Top-Earning Firms Navigate Uncertainty, but Still Managed a ‘Very Solid Year’

Uncertainty can mean many different things to law firms. For some, uncertainty means litigation, which means business. For others, uncertainty means less growth in the broader economy, which means less opportunity for work. Both sides of the uncertainty coin were on display for top law firms in New Jersey over 2024, according to this year’s annual New Jersey Top 40 report.

According to the report, which focuses on 2024 financial and head count data for 40 of the state’s largest and highest-earning firms, six firms saw significant revenue declines in 2024 of more than 5%, which is slightly up from the four firms that saw the same last year. At the same time 25 firms saw gross revenue grow more than 5% compared with the year prior. That is solid growth over the 17 law firms reporting the same last year.

A comparison over the past two years show that in 2024 New Jersey firms and offices added $159.7 million in revenue over the 2023 total. That represents a 7% rise from the total $2.2 billion in revenue firms earned in 2023.

However, collective head count remained flat for New Jersey top firms, with five firms seeing their ranks grow by more than 5% and four shrinking by more than 5%.

Overall, observers gave 2024 mixed reviews, with some seeing really strong growth, while others reported a more modest year that was slowed some by the broader economic and political uncertainty that marked the year.

Law firm leaders say the solid growth is largely due to a recent boom in litigation, as well as some new geographic expansions that are beginning to show strong results. At the same time, observers said transactional work was not as strong as expected, that uncertainty was a limiting factor and that succession planning continues to be a hurdle for many firms.

For example, Cole Schotz saw considerable growth in New York, Delaware and Texas, as well as its Hackensack office, according to managing partner Warren Usatine. The firm, which posted a more than 15.5% firmwide revenue growth the over last year, also more recently opened offices in Washington, D.C., in April and Miami in June.

According to Usatine, having a broad geographical reach allows the firm to be more “agnostic” in terms of where it adds talent, meaning they can grow where the talent and demand is, and then those attorneys can further help growth in other offices.

“We are always growing in New Jersey, and New Jersey has experienced steady growth throughout the years, but it has been supplemented in material ways outside of New Jersey,” Usatine said.

For example, Usatine said the intellectual property work in Dallas dovetails with the work being done in the D.C. office and that the strong restructuring and white-collar investigative work in New Jersey complement the practices in Delaware.

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