Shoosmiths' revenue has passed the £200m mark for the first time, rising 6% to £206.7m in the 2023/24 financial year against a 16% jump in profits per equity partner (PEP).

The 650-lawyer firm’s profits also climbed to £66m, a 5% increase, as PEP rose to £781k from £676k last year.

Shoosmiths said the results underscored its ambition to become a leading upper mid-market law firm, serving clients nationally and internationally, by 2030.

The firm's corporate and litigation both saw double-digit growth, at 15% and 12% respectively. Meantime real estate remained "broadly flat against the 2022/23 results", which the firm chalked up to the sector’s challenging market conditions of persistent inflation and a 15-year high in interest rates.

“Our financial results are the direct outcome of focusing on and executing our strategy," said Shoosmiths' CEO, David Jackson. "We’re continually enhancing our client relationships, expanding our portfolio to include more complex, high-value work and nurturing our culture. I’m proud of everything we’ve achieved whilst making significant investments in our people, technology and infrastructure, all of which provide a strong platform for Shoosmiths’ success.”

Standout work for the firm's transactions team, which advised on more than £7bn worth M&A deals in 2023, included acting for Hipgnosis on its $1.6bn takeover bid by private equity giant Blackstone and acting for longtime client Five Arrows on the merger of Texthelp with n2y to form a leader in specialty education software. 

Meantime the litigation division is involved in cases including defending Liberty Mutual Insurance on disputes over foreign aircraft stuck in Russia, while the real estate team worked on matters including advising Moorfield on a forward-funding agreement for a 440-home build-to-rent scheme, valued at £120m, and Berkley Care Group on the sale-and-leaseback of its £207m care home portfolio.

Over the course of the year the firm added 13 lateral partners to support its 2030 strategy, including energy duo Chris Pritchett and Levent Gurdenli from Foot Anstey and Weightmans respectively and commercial litigator Hannah Field from Goodwin Procter, who joined as head of the firm's London office. 

The firm, which transferred its entire 40-strong private client business to Midlands firm Rothley Law for an undisclosed sum last summer, said it was increasingly organising itself around its priority sectors of technology, mobility, living, financial services, and energy and infrastructure. 

Looking to innovation, Shoosmiths said its connected services arm, EIGHT, received more targeted investment. The new dedicated EIGHT team launched SmartSAR, a solution that combines the firm’s data privacy capabilities with processing technology and cloud hosting to help clients with the processing burden and cost uncertainty of data subject access requests.

The firm also focused on tech intergration, with firm-wide adoption of the cloud-based iManage document and email management system and becoming one of the first law firms worldwide to be invited onto a pilot programme of Microsoft Copilot, an AI-based productivity app, involving 300 employees. 

In terms of investing in people, the firm introduced private health and dental care for all 1,300 of its employees and introduced a number of ESG programmes including a comprehensive DEI strategy and a Social Mobility Impact Report centred on the principles of partnership, access and recruitment.