Revenues at the magic circle law firm also jumped by just over 15% in 2007-08 to £1.293bn, up from £1.121bn last year.
The growth in PEP puts Linklaters ahead of its peer group with only arch-rival Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer coming close at £1.439m.
However, despite further closing the gap in turnover with Clifford Chance (CC), the performance was not enough to see Linklaters take CC’s long-held mantle as the world’s largest law firm by fee income. CC generated revenues of £1.329bn in 2007-08.
Linklaters’ pre-tax profit increased 15.1% to £564m over the year. The profit figure is equivalent to an average for all partners - including salaried partners and Linklaters’ sizeable band of reduced equity partners - of £1.155m.
In the first half of its 2007-08 year Linklaters worked on 148 ranked deals which helped carry it through a quieter second six months. However, the firm has recently won several major mandates include a lead role on BHP Billiton’s £114bn merger bid with Rio Tinto.
Managing partner Simon Davies (pictured right) told Legal Week: “The market is significantly more challenging at the moment, but we have benefited - and continue to benefit - from a flight to quality.”
He added: “There are major challenges ahead. We will draw on our strength and depth across practices, sectors and regions to face these and to deliver the best support possible to our clients.”
The results comes in the wake of Allen & Overy’s announcement on Thursday (3 July), which confirmed that it had become the latest top law firm to push through the billion-pound barrier. The City giant reported revenues climbing 15% to £1.01bn for 2007-08.
The results underline the extent to which international expansion, the strength of the euro and aggressive growth in a number of key emerging market economies has helped the magic circle to offset the slump in finance and big-ticket M&A work.
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