Top 20 US law firm Gibson Dunn grew turnover 10.3% in 2022 to $2.74bn against a 10.9% rise in profits per equity partner (PEP) to $4.93m. 

The results mark the 27^th consecutive year of revenue growth for the Los Angeles-based firm, which told Law.com that strong demand for its litigation, regulatory and private equity advice had contributed to the results. 

Gibson Dunn’s chair and managing partner Barbara Becker described 2022 as an ‘extraordinary year’ for the firm in its annual report, pointing to investment in key practice areas including appellate, antitrust, funds, finance, international arbitration, M&A, privacy and cybersecurity, and private equity. 

The firm also launched new fintech and digital assets and technology regulatory and litigation practice groups. 

Over the course of the year Gibson Dunn added more than 220 lateral associates and of counsel, and 29 lateral partners, among them a seven-strong team of partners and associates that joined from Shearman & Sterling to launch an office in Abu Dhabi. 

The move marked a major investment in the Middle East for Gibson Dunn, which said at the time it saw ‘tremendous opportunities’ in the region, and came shortly after Marwan Elaraby, global co-head of corporate at Shearman, left the firm last October to join Gibson Dunn in Dubai. 

Last November, the firm unveiled a global promotions round that saw 32 lawyers make partner in the US and another five made up across its offices in Europe and the Middle East. The cohort included 16 women – 43% of the total, in line 2021’s 44%. 

Among the women promoted was chief diversity officer Zakiyyah Salim-Williams, who noted that since its introduction in 2013 the firm’s initiative to advance women had seen the number of female partners rise from 56 to more than 140. Another initiative to advance black lawyers had seen the number of black partners rise from just six to 14 since its inception in 2019. 

More than 40% of the members of Gibson’s executive and management committees, and 50% of firmwide committee chairs, are now diverse, she added. Meantime diverse lawyers account for half of local office leaders and 40% of practice group leaders at the firm. 

Standout work for the firm’s litigation team in 2022 included winning a $3.4bn judgment for Nike and Converse against over 600 counterfeiters for trademark infringement and affirming the dismissal of a $1.1bn lawsuit brought against General Electric.

The team also won dismissal on appeal of the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit challenging Amazon’s Covid-19 safety policies and obtained judgment in favour of Amazon on all wage-and-hour misclassification claims after a five-day trial. 

On the transactions side, the firm worked with clients including Atlas, Blackstone and KKR, the latter of which it advised on the acquisition of a minority stake in Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor’s fibre network spin-off Telenor Fiber, among a number of other deals.