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Boostedby booming international financial markets, the City of London has not had itso good since the end of the dotcom bonanza in the late 1990s. Basking indouble-digit growth rates, Londons law firms have both contributed to that success and benefited from it.The earnings of top City lawyers can now exceed ￡2m a year. Having optedto expand and go global ahead of most others, Britains leading law firms tend to bebigger than their American rivals. Indeed, according to a survey of the worlds top 50 law firms, compiled byLegal Business, a British trade paper, five of the worlds top six law firms-in terms ofturnover-are now British . But they have tended to lag behind in terms of theirprofitability. That is now changing. The profitmargins of the Citys five magic circle firms-Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May,Allen Overy, Linklaters and Freshfields-have soared in recent years andare now comparable with, if not higher than, those of New Yorks white shoe elite.Slaughter and May, the only one of the five not to have gone global, has thejoint second-highest profit margin among the top 50. Not so longago, a London surgeon could expect to earn as much as a City lawyer. But eventhe recent big rises in hospital consultants earnings pall in comparison withthose enjoyed by London lawyers. At Slaughter and May, for example, averageprofits per equity partner jumped by almost a third last year to $2.75m-more than at any other of the top 50 law firms bar two inNew York where PEP averaged $2.8m and $3.0m respectively. Some senior partnersget a lot more of course. | 
