Revenues and profits on the rise
A trio of City law firms have gone public with their latest financial results, posting encouraging numbers across the board.
Addleshaw Goddard saw global revenue rise 12% to £321 million and profit per equity partner (PEP) hit £849,000, an uptick of roughly 25%. This despite what it described was a “difficult year”.
John Joyce, managing partner at Addleshaw Goddard, said: “In the last year we have kept many investments on track and our teams have overcome tremendous disruption to support our efforts including the successful opening of our France office a year after launching in Germany and I can’t thank them enough. We will continue to try to be as flexible and supportive as we can be in order to help people succeed and are investing heavily in bonuses this year as well in recognition of people’s efforts.”
Meanwhile, Clyde & Co saw revenues rise for the 23rd consecutive year, with an uptick of 2% to £639.6 million for the financial year ending 30 April. Profit is up 7.6% to £153.5 million, as is PEP — 7.5% to £715,000.
Clydes pointed to increased investment and continued expansion (46 new partners over the past 12 months, as well as a host of new offices) for the solid profit performance.
Reflecting on the figures, Clydes’ CEO, Matthew Kelsall, said:
“This has been a challenging and uncertain year for all businesses, so it is especially pleasing to have once again posted strong underlying growth while at the same time being able to take long term decisions for the firm by accelerating our significant multiyear investment programme.”
He continued: “This year more than ever we benefitted from being a resilient and well-balanced business, with our insurance practice growing especially strongly, in part as a result of an influx of global Covid-19 mandates. In addition, those areas more adversely impacted by the pandemic performed better than we expected.”
Elsewhere, Osborne Clarke posted an 8% increase in UK revenue to £166.4 million as PEP surged 16% to £714,000 — a marked improved on last year’s performance which saw partner profits drop 14% to £614,000. UK net profit jumped 14% to £67.9 million while international revenue reached €341 million, an uplift of 7%.
Omar Al-Nuaimi, Osborne Clarke’s international CEO, commented: “What we’ve achieved is the outcome of a lot of dedication and hard work. Despite the challenging circumstances of the last year, our people maintained an excellent level of focus, always keeping clients’ needs in mind and working alongside them as many grappled with rapidly evolving business models. We are so proud of their response.”
