Partners in the London office of Baker & McKenzie, the top-six global law firm, suffered a 33 per cent fall in their average earnings to £380,000, while the average share of profits of equity partners for the year to June 30 was $992,000 (£597,000), down 17 per cent.

The Chicago-based firm, formerly headed by Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, revealed a 3 per cent slump yesterday in full-year revenue to $2.11 billion (£1.28 billion). The firm blamed the financial crisis and the weakness of the US dollar against currencies in Asia and Latin America for the decline.

The disappointing results marked an end to a five-year period of rapid international growth in which Baker & McKenzie almost doubled its turnover. John Conroy, chairman of the company’s international committee, said: “Our 2009 fiscal year coincided with the most severe months in the current global economic downturn — a challenging time for our clients and, therefore, for our firm.”

Baker & McKenzie, whose clients include Siemens, the German electronics group, and Monsanto, the American chemicals manufacturer, is the world’s second-biggest law firm measured by the number of employees, with about 3,900 lawyers and 5,600 support staff working in 39 countries. Only DLA Piper is bigger.

Baker & McKenzie was one of six firms that generated more than $2 billion in revenue in 2008-09, along with Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In July, Legal Business, a trade magazine, ranked DLA Piper as the top-billing firm, with revenue of $2.26 billion, while Baker & McKenzie was placed fifth based on its 2007-08 results. If ranked on its latest full-year figures it would fall to sixth, behind Clifford Chance, which had revenue of $2.16 billion.

Forty per cent of Baker & McKenzie’s turnover was generated in Europe and the Middle East, 34 per cent in North and Latin America and 26 per cent in Asia. Fee income in the London office was £115.7 million, down from £119.8 million.

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