The highest-grossing law firms in China produce some of the lowest revenues per lawyer in the country, exclusive research by The Lawyer has found.

Dentons, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) and Zhong Lung have emerged as the top three firms in China by total revenue, but the trio are dominated in the revenue per lawyer (RPL) rankings by litigation boutique Tiantong & Partners, Slaughter and May best friend JunHe, and Shanghai banking and finance specialist Llinks.

The Lawyer’s China Elite 2016 report, released today (26 September), identifies the top performing Chinese firms by various key metrics such as revenue, RPL, revenue growth and RPL growth last year.

The third annual edition of the report also contains three years of financial and technological data and indepth analysis on Chinese law firms’ strategies from some of the country’s most eminent lawyers.

The research shows that Dentons, KWM and Zhong Lun continue to be the highest-grossing firms in China, with 2015 annual turnover reaching RMB2.9bn (£305m), RMB2.1bn (£221m) and RMB2bn (£210m) respectively.

The trio has significantly widened the gap between them and the rest of the top 30 Chinese firms in the last year.

Large national firms AllBright, Grandall and Yingke all achieved similar revenues of RMB1.3bn (£136.5m) in 2015, ranking fourth, fifth and sixth by revenue.

Meanwhile Slaughter and May best friend JunHe claimed seventh place, having achieved a 17 per cent year-on-year increase to RMB1.17bn (RMB122.9m). The firm is then followed by DeHeng, Fangda Partners and Mayer Brown’s Chinese ally Jingtian & Gongcheng, which complete the top 10 group.

Top 30 by revenue: Who’s up, down, in, out?

There are several new entries and exits in this year’s top 30 firms by revenue list. Shandong based Jointide and Beijing-based JunZeJun dropped out of the group, while Shanghai-based Llinks and Shenzhen-based Guanghe made their first appearance.

Llinks posted a turnover of RMB236m after achieving a 50.3 per cent hike in 2015 and claimed 27th place in the process. Guanghe, riding on the country’s booming newly established over-the-counter equity exchange which provides a speedy and favourable way of fundraising for start-ups, came 28th. It recorded a 69 per cent increase in revenue for last year.

The firms in the top 10 group remain largely unchanged. However, AllBright, with a 48.2 per cent increase in revenue, moved up three places to fourth. Beijing-headquartered Jingtian & Gongcheng saw a 41.6 per cent revenue growth last year, winning the firm its debut in the top 10, replacing last year’s tenth highest-grossing firm JT&N.