Davis Wright Tremaine has recorded its 11th consecutive year of revenue growth, boosting its gross revenue by 9% in 2023.

The Seattle-founded law firm brought in more than $563.5 million in gross revenue last year, up from $514.9 million in 2022.

Profits per equity partner also grew 15% to $1.074 million, crossing the $1 million mark for the first time in the firm’s history, according to figures shared with Bloomberg Law. Revenue per lawyer jumped 10%, up to $953,900 from $869,300 in 2022.

Davis Wright’s financial success is due to it being “consistently focused on our strengths,” from its technology to its financial services clients and the firm’s litigation and commercial litigation teams that represent a lot of those parties, said Davis Wright managing partner Scott MacCormack in an interview with Bloomberg Law. MacCormack has led the firm since April 2021.

“Fundamentally, we remain true to who we are,” he said.

Last year, the firm saw additional revenue generated in its financial services practice, thanks to its 2022 merger with 44-lawyer financial services boutique McGonigle.

“Putting the two firms together enabled those lawyers in that practice group and in additional practice groups outside to sort of cross sell, and really grow the relationships that both firms had historically enjoyed with their client base,” he said.

The firm’s energy and environmental group also saw a big uptick in work on the transactional, regulatory and litigation front, MacCormack said. Davis Wright’s litigation group “just delivered” last year, he said.

“They are always working at about 100% or more utilization,” he said.

Davis Wright was tapped to represent Hearst Television and Sinclair Broadcast Group in a defamation lawsuit brought by a University of Baltimore student.

The firm is also representing a group of TikTok creators suing to overturn ban by Montana of the short-video social media platform.

A federal judge in November ruled that the state’s ban likely violates the First Amendment and granted a preliminary injunction temporarily prohibiting the state from enforcing the law that was to take effect Jan. 1. The state of Montana filed an appeal last week seeking to overturn the injunction.

Davis Wright Tremaine’s strong financial performance in 2023 is a byproduct of its execution of a relatively new strategic plan for the firm that guides its investments, MacCormack said.

“We are a national firm, we want to be representing these clients, whether they’re in technology, or financial services, or healthcare, or entertainment on a national level and we want to be representing them at an industry level at the top of that market,” he said.

Central to the plan’s guiding principles are its people, he said. “People matter to the firm. They’re not a commodity,” he said.

The firm’s lawyer headcount remained relatively static, decreasing to 591 lawyers from 592 last year, due to a “higher than historically normal number” of partner retirements. The firm does not have a mandatory retirement age for its attorneys, MacCormack noted.

Where the firm does engage in growth, it will be purpose-driven, he said.

“We do not need to be the biggest firm to be successful, but we recognize that growing where it is strategically important will be hugely helpful in order to deliver on the things we’re doing,” MacCormack said.

Last week, the firm added Tritia Murata and David Zins, co-leaders of Morrison & Foerster’s wage and hour class action practice, in Los Angeles. Murata also was co-chair of MoFo’s global employment and labor group.

MacCormack said that the firm is already back to pre-pandemic levels of activity. Given the geopolitical headwinds ahead that could threaten the US economy, MacCormack said he couldn’t guarantee it will continue in 2024, but he said he is fairly confident in the firm’s prospects ahead.

“It’s going to be a good year,” MacCormack said. “There’s some opportunities for us to continue to invest in areas where we see growth opportunities to continue to invest in our people and I think we’ll see the engagements and the work come with it,” he said.