Clyde & Co grew revenue by 10% in the 2023/24 financial year to £845m, marking the 26th consecutive year the UK firm has increased turnover.

The growth followed Clydes upping revenue an eye-catching 20% the year before off the back of its merger with UK firm BLM, which went live in July 2022 and added 600 lawyers and almost £100m in revenue. 

Meantime profits increased 3% on the previous year to £174.4m and profits per equity partner rose 4.4% to £739k, up from £708k the year prior. Top 30 rival HFW, which overtook Clydes’ PEP in FY22/23, grew PEP by 8.8% last year to £855k, though despite increasing by more than 11% its revenue remained much smaller, at £251m. 

Matthew Kelsall, Clydes’ chief executive officer, said the results showed the firm’s “sector focused, geographically hedged” model was in good health. 

“Our growth this year was driven in large part by our underlying business, which benefited from strong client demand for our services across our disciplines and geographies,” he said. “In the past year we have continued to invest in modernisation and made several strategic hires in energy, renewables, regulatory, finance and commercial disputes, a trend that will continue as we seek to maintain a balance across our sectors and practices.”

Over the course of the year Clydes added 32 new partners through lateral hires and internal promotions, including three that joined as part of a 23-lawyer corporate and energy team from Dentons for the firm’s Poland debut. Earlier this year the firm also hired partner Danny Worker and eight more lawyers in Chicago from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith to strengthen its insurance lines offering across North America and hired corporate partner Mohammed Almarzouki to open its second office in Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah. 

The UK’s share of overall revenue remained virtually constant at 47%, up from 46% the previous year, with Europe the firm’s fastest growing region, with revenue up 17% to £52.5m – 6% of the total. Meantime North America revenue share stayed virtually the same at 21.5% as did the Middle East and Africa’s (12%), Asia Pacific’s (11.5%) and Latin America (2%). 

The firm also formalised a global regulatory and investigations practice group and, like a number of firms, it formed an AI working group, a cross-discipline offering intended to help clients address the opportunities and risks of AI.