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.

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.

‘Opportunities for Firms to Increase Their Rates’

A year ago, the state’s top law firms reported strong growth for their bottom lines in 2023—and, at the time, several firm leaders attributed that growth partly to rate increases. Now, while rates aren’t being referenced as such a strong growth factor, firm leaders say they are continuing to explore rate increases.

“We have raised our rates commensurate with the marketplace and are always cognizant of the clientele we’re serving and where the competition places their price point,” Cole Schotz’s Usatine said.

Succession Planning

One persistent hurdle facing firms across the nation is succession planning, and New Jersey is no exception.

According to Haley Stuart’s Berthold, succession planning and business development go hand-in-hand, and she said her firm has been doing lots of counseling about moves to firm leadership to the incoming generation. As it has continued to be a force behind the recent uptick in law firms merging and acquiring each other, Berthold said it has increasingly becoming a talent management strategy for firm leaders.

“We were very intentional during that period to, nonetheless, seek out top talent, and built our bench in M&A,” Usatine said. “We believe, like a lot of other folks, that when the uncertainty and other factors that caused the slowdown work their way through, that M&A will come roaring back, and we will want to be able to handle what we expect will be a very strong demand.”

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