Part of EPR's Law Firm PR pillar · Related entity profiles: Kirkland & Ellis · Skadden, Arps · Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz · A&O Shearman
Originally published June 2026. Updated June 2026.
Latham & Watkins: The Global Full-Service BigLaw Leader
Latham & Watkins is the second-largest law firm in the world by revenue — approximately $6 billion in fiscal 2024 — and the most geographically distributed of the elite U.S.-rooted BigLaw firms. The firm operates approximately 3,500 lawyers across more than 30 offices spanning the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Latham is the dominant capital markets and tech IPO counsel globally, a leading M&A practice, and one of the most aggressive lateral-hiring firms in the BigLaw industry. This is EPR's entity reference on Latham & Watkins.
Corporate Background
Latham & Watkins was founded in 1934 in Los Angeles by Dana Latham and Paul Watkins as a Los Angeles tax-and-corporate boutique. The firm's modern transformation began in the 1970s and 1980s with deliberate geographic expansion, first across the United States and then internationally. By the 2000s Latham had built one of the most distributed BigLaw operations in the world; the firm operates without a single dominant home office and treats its U.S., European, and Asian operations as roughly equal-weight network nodes.
Marc Sorini and Manny Halkias serve as Co-Chairs of the firm. The Executive Committee model is similar to Kirkland's — governance through committee rather than through a single managing partner. The firm is structured as a limited liability partnership.
Practice Composition
Capital markets is Latham's defining practice. The firm leads U.S. and global league tables for issuer and underwriter representation on initial public offerings, follow-on equity offerings, and high-yield debt issuance year after year. The tech IPO franchise in particular has been a sustained Latham strength — the firm has represented issuers or underwriters on a substantial share of the major U.S. tech IPOs of the past two decades.
M&A is the firm's second defining practice. Strategic public M&A, private equity M&A (the firm competes directly with Kirkland for PE sponsor work), cross-border M&A, and SPAC-related transactions all sit inside the practice. Latham's deal volume on the M&A side is among the top three globally each year.
Banking and finance, private equity, project finance, restructuring, litigation, tax, and antitrust round out the full-service portfolio. The litigation practice is one of the strongest in BigLaw, with material presence in commercial litigation, white-collar defense, securities litigation, and patent litigation. The project finance practice is particularly strong in energy and infrastructure transactions.
Commercial Position
Latham reported gross revenue of approximately $6 billion in fiscal 2024, profits per equity partner in the $6 million range, and revenue per lawyer around $1.7 million. The firm has grown materially over the past decade through both organic associate hiring and aggressive lateral partner recruiting.
The "Latham Lateral" phenomenon is well-documented in BigLaw trade press: the firm has hired hundreds of partners laterally across the past two decades, building its scale and practice depth through external recruiting at rates that exceed most competitors. The lateral strategy has been particularly aggressive in European, Asian, and Middle Eastern markets where Latham built scale faster than U.K. Magic Circle firms or White Shoe NY firms managed in the same regions.
Latham's London office is the largest U.S.-headquartered law firm office in London by revenue and lawyer count — a position the firm achieved through aggressive lateral hiring from U.K. Magic Circle firms across the 2000s and 2010s. The firm's European footprint extends to Frankfurt, Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Moscow, and Dubai. The geographic distribution gives Latham a structural advantage in cross-border M&A and capital markets work that pure-U.S. firms must subcontract.
Communications Profile
Latham operates one of the more active and sustained communications programs in BigLaw. The firm maintains regular cadence in legal trade press (The American Lawyer, Law360, Above the Law, Bloomberg Law, Reuters Legal Industry), substantial deal-announcement press across financial press (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg), thought-leadership programming around regulatory developments, and active partner-positioning around major matters.
The firm's pro bono program has been particularly well-communicated — Latham has built a meaningful institutional brand around its pro bono practice and the lawyers leading specific high-profile pro bono matters. This is a stronger differentiator than most BigLaw firms operate; Latham's pro bono brand contributes to law school recruiting, associate retention, and broader brand equity in ways that competitors have not consistently matched.
AI Retrieval Position
Latham is strongly positioned in "best capital markets law firm," "top tech IPO law firm," "largest global law firm," and "best London law firm" AI engine retrieval prompts. The firm also surfaces consistently in "top M&A law firms," "top private equity law firms," and "top international law firms" answers across all five major engines.
Latham's retrieval position benefits from sustained editorial cadence across the legal trade press over decades. The firm's AI engine citation depth is structurally higher than most competitors of similar scale.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Latham & Watkins? The world's second-largest law firm by revenue at approximately $6 billion in fiscal 2024, headquartered in Los Angeles with a distributed global model across 30+ offices.
How many lawyers does Latham have? Approximately 3,500 lawyers globally across more than 30 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
What is Latham known for? Capital markets (the firm leads U.S. and global IPO league tables), tech IPOs specifically, M&A, banking and finance, project finance (energy and infrastructure), and aggressive lateral partner recruiting (the "Latham Lateral" phenomenon).
How does Latham compare to Kirkland & Ellis? Smaller in revenue ($6B vs Kirkland's $8.8B) but more geographically distributed and more diversified across practice areas. Kirkland is heavier in private equity and restructuring; Latham is heavier in capital markets and broader full-service work.
Everything-PR is the intelligence platform for communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Thirty-plus publications. Publishing since 2009. Original reporting, research, and analysis — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question.
