Brodies has recorded its 14th consecutive year of revenue growth, upping turnover 7.5% in the year year to 30 April 2024 to £114.3m. 

The firm – which in 2023 became the first Scottish headquartered law firm to report income over £100m – grew operating profit slightly from £48.6m to £49.2m, while profit per equity partner was recorded at £846k, down marginally from £848k the year before. 

Brodies said it had made progress across all of its core practice areas – banking and finance, corporate and commercial, dispute resolution and risk, personal and family, and real estate – with each one reporting record income.

Over the course of the year the firm grew headcount by 5% from 794 to 837, including three lateral partners hires, among them commercial services partner Alison Bryce, who joined in Glasgow from Dentons. Rural business partner Gary Webster also joined the Inverness office the firm opened in 2022 to service its Highlands and Islands clients from Aberdeen-based firm Ledingham Chalmers. 

The firm also invested in salary increases and bonus payments, with all eligible staff receiving a bonus of 3%, down from the 6% the firm dished out in June 2023. Individual performance bonuses were also awarded during the year.

Cash balances at year-end were £20.9m, down from £29.5m the year before, which the firm said reflected planned investment in recruitment, IT and infrastructure, including completing the upgrades of its offices in Aberdeen and Glasgow. 

This year the firm is presenting consolidated accounts for the first time, reflecting the trading of Brodies Middle East LLP, a separate LLP that operates from the Abu Dhabi office the firm opened last year to service infrastructure and oil and gas clients in the region. 

Brodies’ managing partner, Stephen Goldie, commented: “Progress has been made notwithstanding another period of flux in the economic, social and political environment, where higher interest rates and headwinds from the transactional markets have impacted the business decisions and activities that clients undertake.

“Our strategic plans for the next three-year cycle are now underway and we look to the future with confidence, in ourselves and in the resilience and ambitions of the clients that we work with.”

Edinburgh-based Goldie succeeded Nick Scott as managing partner at the start of May, as part of a wider set of promotions at the beginning of the firm’s latest three-year cycle that also saw Louise Shiels and Marion MacInnes named practice leaders for disputes and banking and finance, respectively.

Standout work for the firm in the past financial year included advising VINCI Airports on the acquisition of the majority shareholding in Edinburgh Airport Limited – the company that owns Edinburgh Airport – for £1.27bn. The firm also acted for PGIM Real Estate in its £38m purchase of Argyle House in Edinburgh, one of the highest value office acquisitions of the year, and international fintech company Basware, a portfolio company of the US private equity fund Accel-KKR, on the acquisition of UK invoice management provider AP Matching.