We love a bit of ranking – a couple of interesting reports on the current shape of law firms have just come out. A joint research project between The American Lawyer and Legal Week found total revenues at the world’s 100 highest-billing law firms have crept up 1.7% from the previous year, from $78.53bn to $79.92bn. Average fee income for a Global 100 practice was $799.2m, up from $785.3m in 2008 but average profit per equity partner (PEP) was down 8% from $1.51m in 2008 to $1.39m.

Notably for the UK, SJ Berwin, Addleshaw Goddard and Berwin Leighton Paisner all fell out of the Global 100 table. Linklaters, however managed to take the position of the world’s largest practice by revenue with income of $2.4bn… but it was soundly beaten in the profit rankings by Wall Street’s Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz with PEP of $4.01m.

Meanwhile, a survey by research agency Acritas of 500 senior in-house counsel at large and mid-sized organisations showed that 29% were planning to increase their spend with regional firms reports the Gazette .

Unfortunately for City firms though, many businesses said they were planning to cut back on City spending. According to the research, magic circle firms will see fall in spending with them of 21%, while City firms generally will see a 19% drop. National firms on the other hand will see a smaller decrease of 3% as companies look for the beauty in regional bargains.

The proof will be in the pudding.