The annual media feeding frenzy over English law firm financials has seen some wide variations among the top firms releasing figures so far. The Law Gazette reports that overall, the annual results suggest that annual growth at the top ranking firms see profit-per-partner (PEP) figures up by 8 per cent.

Merger boost

As the Post reported earlier, Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance were the first magic circle firms out of the reporting blocks. Linklaters follows with its numbers today showing a modest 0.6 per cent rise in revenue and a 1.2 per cent increase in overall profits.
Clyde’s revenue figure was significantly boosted by its merger last November with fellow London firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert. But the firm’s management maintained that it would still have posted strong turnover numbers if the merger income had been excluded, reckoning its growth would have been 17 per cent. The firm has not yet released its PEP figure.

Financial treadmill

Other big names on the financial figures treadmill were global franchise firm Eversheds, which announced a 3 per cent increase in revenue and a 10 per cent rise in net profit. Another recently merged practice – DAC Beachcroft – reported a revenue increase of 22 per cent, while its PEP figure slumped by 4 per cent.
According to the Law Gazette, the biggest winner in the PEP department was the English arm of Anglo-US firm SNR Denton, which saw that number leap by 48 per cent. Big PEP losers, according to the Gazette, are Field Fisher Waterhouse (down 20 per cent), Gateley (down 11 per cent) and global player Herbert Smith, which saw its PEP figure slump by 6 per cent.