In an uneven year in which Big Law saw profits slide, some of the biggest firms also appeared to heed the words of Shelby Cullom Davis. A leading investor and former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, Davis once observed: “You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t realize it at the time.” Robert Insolia, chair of Goodwin, says that was part of the thinking as his firm grew from 259 equity partners to 281 last year. The firm saw profits per equity partner dip 6.4% even as revenue grew 12%. “If we had not grown our equity partner ranks, for example, by 8.5%, our [profits per equity partner] would have been higher,” Insolia says to The American Lawyer. “However, we believe that would have been counter to our objective of executing on our strategy and investing in the future.” He later added: “What we do is we do not look at the results in any given year, we look at the results over an extended period.” Goodwin ranked #13 on Am Law's 100 ranking.