St. Louis and Kansas City
$87.1 million
Across Lewis Rice’s two offices, revenue and profit were relatively flat in 2018, but Chairman Thomas C. Erb said he is “feeling bullish” on 2019.

Firmwide, Lewis Rice had a total headcount of 168 attorneys — two more than the previous year. It added three equity partners, two of whom — Edward T. Pivin and Meghan S. Largent — were promoted from within. The third, Lindsay S.C. Brinton, came from outside the firm to the St. Louis office to team up with Largent in leading the Fifth Amendment takings and eminent domain practice group, which will represent landowners across the country in “rails to trails” takings by the federal government.
Erb said the firm is not trying to get to a specific headcount.
“We don’t pursue growth for growth’s sake,” Erb said. “We always pay highest starting salary in town, we keep our associates well compensated.”
At Lewis Rice’s downtown St. Louis headquarters, the firm saw a profit of $45.9 million, and profit per equity partner was at $644,300 in 2018.

“That’s where our focus is,” said Erb, adding that the firm’s work in the area of mergers & acquisitions was particularly strong, while the commercial-litigation group continued to be a “workhorse.” Erb said that this year, the firm aims to raise profit per equity partner to more than $700,000.
Lewis Rice has an unusual structure in that its headquarters in St. Louis and its smaller office in Kansas City effectively function as independent profit centers. The 19 partners in Kansas City made $7.2 million in 2018.
Boosting profit is a worthy goal in its own right, Erb said, but there are other long-term reasons to do it.
“It also makes you stronger if you need to add talent laterally,” said Erb, who is celebrating this year his 40th anniversary at the firm, “and also it helps recruit law school students. They do research. They find out which firms are at the top tier, and wonder, ‘What would my career be like if I stayed there?’”

— Nicholas Phillips

St. Louis
$66.9 million
From the seats behind Busch Stadium’s infield, you can’t miss the huge “Greensfelder” logo emblazoned across a high-rise to the northeast. Next year, however, a new luxury-apartment building will rise up and block that view.

“We’re enjoying our last season of visibility,” said Timothy Thornton, chief executive officer for Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale.
On the bright side, business is booming at the firm: Revenue, both overall and per lawyer jumped by 9 percent and 14.7 percent respectively, while profit and profit per equity partner were both up by 8.4 percent. (Editor’s note: Greenfelder’s profit figures were listed incorrectly in the MOney 2018. Its 2017 profit figure should have been $28 million, and the 2017 profit per equity partner should have been $483,400.)
“Everybody was hitting on all cylinders,” Thornton said. Particularly active were the dispute resolution and intellectual property practice groups, he added. The latter, for example, was helping the firm’s Chicago office with a large piece of litigation.
Also in the past year, Thornton said, the firm has spent a lot of time crafting a strategic growth plan. Pursuant to that plan, Greensfelder will look for ways to strengthen its services in industries such as construction, energy, financial services, IP, healthcare, manufacturing, private clients and closely held companies, and corporate M&A. The firm already has a good base of talent and clients in those areas, Thornton said, each of which is growing. So the time is right.

And about that talent base: Some of these practice groups, Thornton was proud to point out, are led by women. Examples include Kathy Butler, who leads the health care practice group; Amy Blaisdell, who leads the health care industry group; and Abby Risner, who leads the energy group.
Greensfelder has recently branched out in another way: In the summer of 2018, it opened an office in the Cortex Innovation Community, an innovation hub in the Midtown neighborhood of St. Louis that’s home to approximately 350 technology-related businesses. Attorneys rotate in and out, offering services in a variety of areas, including employment law, IP, litigation and business services. Thornton said the firm has already come into a number of partnerships with members of the community there.
— Nicholas Phillips

St. Louis
$47 million
Last year, Bhavik Patel predicted that certain “aggressive” expansionary moves by Sandberg Phoenix & Von Gontard, where he is managing partner and executive committee chairman, would soon bear fruit.
He was right.

“We went at it pretty hard,” he said, referring to the firm’s addition in the previous year of mass tort and intellectual property services. “I think overall it’s moving in the direction we wanted it to move in.”
By most measures, the firm’s numbers were up in 2018, compared to 2017. Revenue was up 8.7 percent, revenue per lawyer was up 4.1 percent, and profit-per-equity-partner was up 8.6 percent. Profits were effectively flat at $15.4 million.
Patel said “the secret sauce” has been integrating the new service lines and cross-selling services, thereby helping new revenue breed new revenue.
While the expansion has slowed, it hasn’t stopped: Since the last MOney issue, Sandberg Phoenix has added a construction transaction arm through lateral hiring and also beefed up its practice groups in health care law and M&A.
Patel said the firm is actively looking to further increase its offerings in health care regulation and transactions. It wants to sub-specialize its information-technology group into areas such as biotech. And lastly, the firm wants to capitalize on several newer industries, such as cybersecurity, cryptocurrency and cannabis.

Branching out in this way would continue a trend at the firm. In August 2016, Sandberg Phoenix established a property-tax assessment consultancy. In March 2018, Sandberg Phoenix merged with Polster, Lieder, Woodruf & Lucchesi, formerly a boutique IP firm in Des Peres. Within months of that move, Sandberg Phoenix became home to a dozen attorneys from the former Herzog Crebs with specialties in real estate and asbestos litigation.
The most recent headcount at Sandberg Phoenix was 118 attorneys. Patel said Sandberg Phoenix is not “chasing a number” of attorneys to have in its roster, but rather, adding expertise only as clients demand it.
“If we’re satisfying all our clients’ demands, we won’t grow,” he said, adding that maintaining the firm’s standards for quality of service is paramount. “But our clients’ needs are growing, so we’re growing as a result of those needs.”
— Nicholas Phillips

St. Louis
$23 million
Timothy M. Tierney, the managing member of Evans & Dixon, summed up 2018 this way: “We had a good year.”

By several measures, that’s empirically true: revenue was up 3 percent to about $23 million and revenue per lawyer was up 2.6 percent to $302,900. In addition, profit was up 4.6 percent at approximately $10.8 million and profit per equity partner was up 2.6 percent at $237,800.
Tierney said that a decade ago, Evans & Dixon was mostly a litigation firm. For the past seven years, however, the firm has been trying to diversify practice areas and diversify equity. Today, litigation is only about half of the firm’s practice. It now offers services in environmental, labor and employment, health care, intellectual property and insurance subrogation matters, among others.
“We’re not as dependent on one area of the law as we were in the past,” said Tierney.
That’s not to say that there aren’t challenges. Tierney said that the volume of civil litigation is down, thanks to the rise of mediations and arbitrations. In addition, certain decisions by U.S. district and appeals courts have made it more difficult for “patent trolls” — that is, companies that buy broad patents and then use them to pursue alleged infringers — to prevail in their infringement actions. That has led to a drop in demand for IP defense work nationwide, Tierney observed.

But Evans & Dixon is looking for new opportunities. So far this year, the firm has added two notable attorneys: John M. Nations, a former mayor of Chesterfield; and Kevin R. Corlew, a former state representative. Both have extensive experience with transportation issues and will focus on those matters at the firm, Tierney said, particularly “port projects that provide opportunities to move the breadbasket of the country more efficiently up and down the river.”
In 2018, Evans & Dixon had 76 attorneys total, with almost all of them anchored in Missouri. The firm has offices in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia. It also has offices in Omaha, Nebraska and Overland Park, Kansas.
— Nicholas Phillips

Greenville, South Carolina
$20.4 million (Missouri)
Ogletree Deakins specializes in labor and employment law and has 52 offices located throughout the United State, Mexico, Canada and Europe.

Stacy Bunck, office managing shareholder in Kansas City, said the company’s focus on accommodating attorneys’ life events and personal scheduling needs outside the office has contributed to the firm’s success.
“I would say that something that sets us apart as a firm is our ability to meet exceptional client service but also retaining employees through a variety of benefit programs for them,” she said, citing parental-leave programs and a reduced-hours opportunity for all employees.
She said these programs are designed to help attorneys balance their professional and personal lives so that they can retain the best talent to provide excellent client service through continuity.
With 903 attorneys internationally, Ogletree had firmwide revenue of $509.8 million. Thirty-nine of those attorneys work in Missouri at the firm’s St. Louis and Kansas City offices, which generated $20.4 million in revenue in 2018, up 1.48 percent from in 2017.
“I would say that challenges tend to be that in our area … there are more and more firms that are entering the arena in Missouri. So there is competition for clients within our model and that obviously can potentially impact revenue. That’s why we have put a focus on how we can differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” Bunck said.

Bunck said the firm is always looking for top talent in order to provide the best possible service as part of its firmwide client pledge.
That pledge to clients states that Ogletree Deakins attorneys will: understand your business and objectives; focus on and anticipate your needs; collaborate to develop creative business solutions; harness technology and innovation to better serve your interests; communicate in a timely and effective manner; and provide quality representation with exceptional value.
“At this point what we are looking for is adding strategic lateral hires in our existing offices. We are always looking for talented labor and employment attorneys to expand our services,” she said.
The firm enjoyed a $210.3 million profit in 2018, up 6.8 percent from 2017.
— Dana Rieck

Kansas City
$12.8 million (Missouri)
Revenue at Kansas City firm McDowell Rice Smith & Buchanan was flat in 2018, but that isn’t necessarily a cause of concern for the firm.

The firm’s total revenue in 2018 was $12.8 million, down less than a percentage point from the prior year.
Kristie Orme, firm president, said it’s not unusual for the firm, which tends to stay steady from year to year.
“That’s a good number, hitting close to $13 million on an annual basis,” she said. “We do a lot of local business-support type of legal services.”
In years where revenue figures are above $13 million, she said that’s usually because of a large contingency-fee matter that reaches a conclusion in that particular year.
“It’s usually something out of the ordinary that causes a boost,” she said.
Orme said the firm’s headcount is also an area that has remained steady through the years.
The firm, whose practice areas include personal-injury litigation, business transactions, tax law and family law, had 30 attorneys in 2018, down slightly from 32 in 2017. Revenue per lawyer was up nearly 6 percent, at $426,700.
McDowell Rice’s profit was about $6.2 million, down 21 percent from 2017. Profit per equity partner was $218,000, down 26 percent from the prior year. Of the firm’s 30 attorneys, 27 are equity partners.
In all, Orme said 2018 was a successful year for the firm.

“Our numbers stayed in the range we like to see them in,” she said. “We did have a couple of retirements, but we did have lawyers join, too.”
Orme said one of the firm’s goals is consistency.
She said as a locally focused law firm in Kansas City, McDowell Rice takes pride in serving the community.
“We like to see growth, but we’re comfortable with consistency,” she said. “We think 2019 is going to be a solid year for McDowell Rice, and we hope to continue to provide quality legal services at a fair price to our clients,” she said.
Looking forward, Orme said she believes 2019 is on track to also be a solid year for the firm.
“We think 2019 is going to be a similarly successful year for us,” she said.
— Jessica Shumaker

Kansas City
$6.2 million (Missouri)
A particularly strong economy contributed to an increase in revenue at Kansas City firm Levy Craig in 2018, according to firm president Scott Seitter.

The firm brought in nearly $6.2 million in revenue, up nearly 10 percent from the prior year.
Seitter said the increase has been part of a sustained, upward trend.
“It’s been hot for almost 10 years now,” Seitter said. “We’ve had a great year.”
The firm’s practice areas also help. Levy Craig focuses on real estate development and litigation, and it also has a fidelity and surety bond practice.
In the latter practice, surety bonds are required for public works projects, while fidelity bonds are bought by businesses to protect against incidents of fraud like employee embezzlement.
Seitter said litigation tends to follow the market. The fidelity and surety practice, however, tends to kick into gear in times of economic trouble. He said the practice serves as an indicator of the market.
“I can tell economic headwinds are coming when claim activity jumps up,” he said.
While some experts are concerned at the prospect of the economy entering another recession by the end of 2019, he’s not seeing any indications of that in terms of the claims handled by the firm.

“We’ve not seen that yet,” he said. “There’s always a certain amount of claim activity, but as the economy declines, eventually it’ll go the other direction.”
The firm had 15 attorneys in 2018, the same as the prior year. Seitter said the firm anticipates the retirement of some shareholders in 2019. Seven of the firm’s attorneys were equity partners.
The firm’s revenue per lawyer was $411,400, also up nearly 10 percent from the prior year.
While Seitter can’t say what the economy will be like in the coming year, he said the firm’s outlook is good.
“We have a balanced firm,” he said. “It really does great when the economy is great and when the economy doesn’t do great. Right now it’s been terrific for 10 years and we’re looking forward to another couple good years.”
— Jessica Shumaker

Jefferson City
$5.8 million (Missouri)
A series of high-dollar settlements sent Carson & Coil’s revenue and profits soaring in 2018.
The Jefferson City-based firm saw a 36 percent increase from the prior year, to $5.8 million and a total profit of nearly $3.9 million, a 65 percent increase.

“We had a really good year in 2018,” said Blake Markus, the firm’s president. “We had a few big cases.”
While he said he couldn’t discuss the details of those cases because of confidentiality requirements, he said the firm had multiple seven-figure settlements in its personal injury cases.
One of those cases was a $2 million settlement for the family of a developmentally disabled Fulton man whose dead body was found encased in concrete after he went missing from a group home. Missouri Lawyers Media reported on the settlement between the man’s family and Fulton County after obtaining the amount through a public-records request.
Markus said the firm has been lucky in the last few years to continue its streak of high-dollar settlements.
“Normally you might say that’s the exception, but it’s becoming more the rule than the exception for us, which is fantastic for our law firm,” he said.
Carson & Coil’s headcount in 2018 included 12 attorneys, up one attorney from 2017. Not included in that number are three additional attorneys who either serve as of counsel to the firm or are retired. The firm’s revenue per lawyer was $483,500, up 24 percent from the prior year.

Eight of the 12 are equity partners. The firm’s profit per equity partner was up 50 percent, to $439,900.
Markus attributed the success in 2018 to having a balanced firm as a whole. He said the firm’s non-contingency fee business, including in the firm’s business litigation and family law practices, allow it to take bigger risks on contingency-fee cases.
Markus said 2019 so far is a year with various cases in the pipeline. He said it may not see similar increases in revenue, but the firm hopes to stay in that same revenue range.
The firm is also focused on growth. This year it added three attorneys and opened a Columbia office.
“We’ve been lucky, but we’ve got some great people behind the numbers and we think it’s going to continue into the future,” he said. “We think it’ll be a balancing year and we hope to grow in the future.”
— Jessica Shumaker

Omaha, Nebraska
$20.4 million (Missouri)
Omaha-based Kutak Rock experienced an almost 40 percent growth in revenue between 2017 and 2018.
The firm brought in $249.1 million in 2018, up from $231.9 million in 2017.
Kutak Rock employs 503 attorneys nationwide and 45 attorneys in Missouri at its Kansas City and Springfield offices. Using revenue per lawyer figures, the firm’s Missouri revenue was approximately $20.4 million in 2018, a 39.40 percent increase from 2017.
In addition, the firm has added 16 attorneys across the country since 2017.
While founded in finance law, Kutak Rock practices in a variety of other areas as well, including business, corporate, securities, employment law, health care, public finance, litigation, real estate, technology, tax and tax credits.
The firm also has offices in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.
Kutak Rock enjoyed nationwide profits of $132.1 million in 2018, with profit per equity partner of $472,400.
— Dana Rieck

New York
$11 million (Missouri)
Headquartered in New York, Jackson Lewis employs 20 attorneys in Missouri and 820 firm-wide.
The firm provides a wide array of services to its clients, including workplace law representation, government relations, health care and sports law.
In 2018, the company saw a nationwide revenue of $447.5 million. Using revenue per lawyer figures, approximately $11 million was generated by its Missouri offices in Kansas City and St. Louis.
The firm enjoyed a $205.4 million firmwide profit, with profit per equity partner of $596,100 for its 258 partners.
— Dana Rieck

Kansas City
$5.8 million
A downturn in revenue in 2017 reversed course in 2018 for Kansas City-based firm Dysart Taylor Cotter McMonigle & Montemore.
The firm’s revenue was nearly $5.8 million, up 15.3 percent from the prior year. Revenue per lawyer was up the same percent from the prior year, at $263,400.
The firm’s profit also increased significantly to slightly more than $2 million in 2018, up 23.6 percent from the prior year.
The firm had 11 equity partners. The profit per equity partner was $186,700, which was up 12.3 percent from 2017.
Amanda Ketchum, the firm’s managing director, declined to comment on the figures.
The firm handles litigation and corporate trusts and estates.
In total, the firm has 22 attorneys in Missouri, a number which held steady from the prior year.
— Jessica Shumaker