Profits per equity partner (PEP) at Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) have reached $2m for the first time as revenue at the West Coast-based US firm increased by 10% to $1.15bn. The figures for 2019 kick off the US law firm financial reporting season and set a competitive benchmark – last year the Am Law 100 collectively achieved an average revenue growth rate of 8% against a 6.5% increase in PEP.

MoFo’s $2.05m PEP represents a 3.3% increase on last year, while the revenue-per-lawyer metric grew by 4% to $1.14m.

Key investments highlighted by the firm included the addition of 42 lateral partner hires – nearly twice the figure in 2018 –  and the opening of a Boston office, which has grown to 40 lawyers. The total number of lawyers at the firm grew by 6% over the period.

The firm also unveiled a strong set of results for its London office with revenue up by nearly 25% to $49.3m (£38.6m).

There were four lateral hires in London, including that of Christopher Kandel, who joined from Latham & Watkins where he was co-chair of the global banking group.

The firm also pointed to the expansion of its Latin American desk following the hire of a nine-lawyer corporate team including four partners in Miami from Greenberg Traurig.

“Our 2019 performance is anything but an outlier,” said MoFo chair Larren Nashelsky. “We have achieved billion dollar revenue years in 2017, 2018, and now 2019, outperforming any other three-year period in our history.”

Paul Friedman, managing partner for Europe, added: “2019 was another exceptional year for the London office. For the third year in a row, our revenue grew well over 20%, and 2019 also marked our fourth consecutive year of transformational growth.