What a result - the Legal Week Wiki financials special
Signs are that the credit crunch has yet to impact on UK firms' bottom lines, with a raft of City firms unveiling double-digit improvements in turnover. Some early movers are also reporting hefty hikes in profits per partner, demonstrating that the legal sector - by and large - has yet to feel the pinch in earnest.
But regardless of whether your firm is riding out the downturn in style or struggling to break even, legalweek.com will once again keep you up to date with all the latest news, numbers and waxing managerial as this year's results season unfolds.
Read what all the numbers mean with forthright opinion and unrivalled analysis from Legal Week's top editorial team - including editor Alex Novarese and news editor Georgina Stanley - as well as the view from across the Pond from Richard Lloyd of the The American Lawyer.
And don't forget to have your say on the results of your firm and its rivals. Just click here to get stuck in.
Results time-line
- Travers reports 7.6% partner profits fall; revenue breaks £80m (15/7/08)
- Bird & Bird breaks £500k PEP mark with 12.5% rise (11/7/08)
- Holman Fenwick posts 14% turnover increase (09/7/08)
- Ashurst breaks £1m PEP mark with 9% rise (07/7/08)
- Linklaters PEP up 11% to £1.4m; revenue hits £1.29bn (04/7/08)
- A&O grows revenue 15% to join billion-pound club (04/7/08)
- Hammonds PEP falls by 8% while turnover edges up (01/7/08)
- Barlows boosts billings 7% to break £80m (27/6/08)
- Simmons' PEP surges 22% to near £650k (26/6/08)
- Profits flat at Macfarlanes as fees hit £110m (23/6/08)
- Fees up 7% at Newcastle's Dickinson Dees; Hill Dicks breaks £70m as income climbs 7% (20/6/08)
- Dundas boosts revenue by 23% to near £75m; Partner profits drop again at LG to £430,000 (19/6/08)
- BLP hit by 6% drop in partner profits (18/6/08)
- Nabarro PEP up 6% to £600k as fees hit £140m; Trowers hit by 8% PEP dip as market bites (13/6/08)
- Stephenson Harwood buoyed by '07-08 results (12/6/08)
- Revenue up 13% at Newcastle's Ward Hadaway (5/6/08)
- Fees up 9%, PEP up 7% at Watson Farley (4/6/08)
- Freshfields secures 40% profits surge as PEP tops £1.4m (2/6/08)
- CC opens magic circle results season with 11% turnover rise; Addleshaws records double-digit turnover growth; Bird & Bird flies high with 24% revenue rise (29/5/08)
- Taylor Wessing boosts UK turnover by 11%; (28/5/08)
- BLP joins double-digit club as income hits £186m; Commercial leads way as Olswang income climbs 11% (23/5/08)
- Camerons' PEP up a third as fees hit £235m; International drives Clydes through £150m mark (22/5/08)
- Field Fisher eyes UK top 25 after stellar results; Dentons PEP up 14% to reach £470k (19/5/08)
- Lovells posts double-digit turnover, PEP growth; SJs breaks £200m but PEP up just 2% (15/5/08)
- Pannone passes £50m as fees climb 18% (14/5/08)
- Profits, fees up 25% as Herbies tops £1m PEP; Norton Rose turnover soars 27% to near £300m (13/5/08)
- Pinsents posts 11% fees boost to break £200m (12/5/08)
- Ashurst fees up 17% to smash £300m mark (9/5/08)
- Wragges revenue up 11.5% to break £125m; Simmons celebrates 16% turnover hike for '07-08 (6/5/08)
- Bird & Bird breaks £500k PEP mark with 12.5% rise (11/7/08)
Comment and analysis
- Global 100: Cloning the big four (Alex Novarese, 4/7/08)
- Editor's Comment: High noon, mid-tier (Alex Novarese, 26/6/08)
- Editor's Comment: The politics of PEP (Alex Novarese, 5/6/08)
- Editors' Blog: Countdown to this year’s Global 100 - the UK members (Richard Lloyd, 23/5/08)
- Editors' Blog: Editors' Blog: Results 2008 - fighting fit ahead of battle (Alex Novarese, 19/5/08)
Those numbers in full (as they come in)
|
Firm |
Turnover (2007) |
% change |
Average PEP (2007) |
% change |
Notes |
|
|
£1.329bn (£1.194bn) |
11% |
£1.151m (£1.015m) |
13% |
|
|
£1.293bn (£1.121bn) |
15% |
£1.441m (£1.294) |
11% |
Still the most profitable among the big four (just), but fails to take CC's revenue crown | |
|
£1.178bn (£986m) |
19.5% |
£1.435m (£1.034m) |
38.8% |
||
|
£1.01bn (£887m) |
15% |
£1.12m (£1.025m) |
9% |
||
|
DLA Piper |
£536.4m (£446.3m) |
20.2% |
£728,000 (£715,000) |
1.8% |
|
|
£479m (£425m) |
13% |
£662,000 (£592,000) |
12% |
||
|
Slaughter and May |
|
|
|
|
|
|
£390m (£356m) |
10% |
£552,000 (£502,000) |
10% |
||
|
£417.5m (£334m) |
25% |
£1.02m (£820,000) |
25% |
||
|
£323m (£275m) |
17% |
£1.04m(£956,000) |
9% |
||
|
£290m (250.4m) |
16% |
£647,000 (£532,000) |
22% |
Upturn in IP and litigation; profits smash £600k target set last year | |
|
£297m (£233m) |
27% |
£625,000)(£512,000) |
22.1% |
||
|
£235m (£197m) |
19% |
£655,000 (£502,000) |
30% |
||
|
£213m (£192m) |
11% |
£500,000 (£471,000) |
6% |
||
|
£215m (£189m) |
14% |
£801,000 (£782,000) |
2% |
||
|
£195.4m (£176.7m) |
11% |
£586,000 (£542,000) |
8% |
Contentious and commercial earned £57.9m; real estate billed £55.7m | |
|
£186m (£169m) |
10% |
£620,000 (£660,000) |
-6% |
Tax, corporate and litigation cited as top performers; firm blames office move for PEP dip | |
|
£164m (£156m) |
6% |
£470,000 (£411,000) |
14% |
||
|
£157m (£135m) |
17% |
£550,000)(£500,000) |
10.0% |
||
|
Hammonds |
£132m (£127.6) |
3.4% |
£367,000 (£404,000) |
- 8.25% |
|
|
Irwin Mitchell |
£145m (£127m) |
14.2% |
£520,000 (£500,000) |
4.0% |
|
|
£140m (£123m) |
14% |
£600,000 (£567,000) |
6% |
||
|
£143m (£115.6m) |
24% |
£515,000 (£458,000) |
12.5% |
||
|
£125.5m (£112.6m) |
11.5% |
£470,000 (£420,000) |
11% |
||
|
£114m (£112.4m) |
2.5% |
£310,000(£320,000) |
-3.1% |
||
|
£110m (£105m) |
4.5% |
£1.125m (£1.1m) |
2% |
Firms cites investment in property as factor in static profits | |
|
£103m (£95m) |
8% |
£327,000)(£407,000) |
-19.7% |
||
|
£97.5m) (£90.5m) |
11% |
£613,400)(£583,400) |
5.1% |
| |
|
Halliwells |
|
|
|
|
|
|
£92.4m (£83.1m) |
11% |
£545,000)(£561,000) |
-2.9% |
| |
|
£95.3m (£82.8m) |
15% |
£554,000 (£511,000) |
8% |
||
|
£81m (£78.5m) |
3% |
£755,000 (£817,000) |
-7.6% |
||
|
Withers |
£88.8m (£78.2m) |
13.6% |
£357,500 (£355,200) |
0.6% |
|
|
£81.7m (£76.3m) |
7% |
£380,000)(£399,000) |
--4.8% |
||
|
£85.3m (£71.7m) |
19% |
£620,000 (£530,000) |
17% |
||
|
£73.1m (£68.5m) |
7% |
£310,000 (£310,000) |
0% |
||
|
£77.6m (£68.3m) |
14% |
£453,000 (£436,000) |
4% |
||
|
£77.6m (68.1m) |
14% |
£515,000 (£559,000) |
-8% |
||
|
£88m (£67.7m) |
30% |
£750,000 (£589,000) |
27% |
||
|
£67.5m (£66m) |
2.3% |
£430,000 (£445,000) |
-3.4% |
||
|
Charles Russell |
£71.8m (£63.5m) |
13.1% |
£419,000 (£358,000) |
17.0% |
|
|
£68.2m (£61.4m) |
11% |
£532,000(£470,000) |
13.2% |
||
|
£74.8m (£60.8m) |
23% |
£385,000(£308,000) |
25.0% |
||
|
McGrigors |
£64.5m £56m) |
7.5% |
£312,500 (£303,000) |
3.1% |
|
|
£59.3m (£58.6m) |
2% |
£305,000(£240,000) |
24.0% |
| |
|
Mills & Reeve |
£62.5m (£57m) |
9.6% |
£295,000 (£275,000) |
7.3% |
|
|
Ince & Co |
|
|
|
|
|
|
£60m (£56m) |
7% |
£315,000)(£375,000) |
-16% |
||
|
Maclay Murray & Spens |
£61.1m (£54.3m) |
12.5% |
£325,000 (315,000) |
3.2% |
|
|
£59m (£54m) |
9% |
£424,000 (£396,000) |
7% |
