Pinsent Masons has posted a 16% increase in its profit per equity partner (PEP) with revenue edging up by 1.5%, breaking the £500m benchmark for the first time.

The hike in PEP to £636,000 represents an eye-catching rebound from last year when PEP fell by 12% to £546,000.

Revenue, meanwhile, rose to £503.3m from £496m, the ninth successive year the top 20 UK firm has increased turnover.

The performance provides an early indication that the top UK law firms, whose financial years generally run to the end of April, will benefit from the same pandemic cost savings that led the Am Law 100 to record an average 13% increase in PEP for 2020.

The results are the second set posted by Pinsent Masons since it revamped its reporting metrics last year to cover a wider range of criteria for measuring success it believed would better reflect the firm’s values beyond PEP. These include trust among colleagues, trust among clients, community and societal good, and ‘purpose-led business growth’, which includes revenue and PEP. 

Richard Foley, senior partner at Pinsent Masons, said: “For us, success is to fulfil a purpose, and our purpose is to make business work better for people. If we get that right then financial success will follow, as we saw when we broke through the five hundred million pound revenue mark this year. But financial improvements are a product of a successful business, not the measure of it.” 

In terms of trust among colleagues, the firm highlighted its employee net promoter score of +30 and its top 50 ranking in The Times’ Employer for Women index, as well as being named a top ten family friendly employer for the fourth year in a row. 

It reported that 94% of clients would recommend the firm, while 90% were ‘extremely’ or ‘very satisfied with the standards of service, based on interviews of 294 clients during 2020 carried out by independent research company Acuigen. 

For its community-focused metric, the firm set out environmental targets that commit it to cutting absolute carbon emissions by a minimum of 50% and sourcing 100% renewable electricity across its global estate by 2030. 

Finally, on top of revenue and PEP, the firm’s purpose-led business growth included its launch in the Netherlands and its incorporation of its professional services offering Vario as a fifth practice group. It also launched an equality law offering to help clients manage the ‘cultural and legal aspects of discrimination and inclusion issues’.

Global firm CMS also reported its financial results today, posting a 3% increase in revenue to €1.475bn for 2020 across its global network while its UK LLP's turnover inched up by £1m to £567m.