Taylor Wessing’s revenue has jumped 12% to £175.5m for its UK business against an 18% increase in profit per equity partner, understood to be around £685,000, making it the latest law firm to report double-digit growth in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

UK profits soared 23% to £71m, marking a return to form after profits dropped by 8% to £58m last year. Global revenue, meanwhile, increased for the fourth year in a row, inching up to £371m.  

The firm’s PEP increase lands it in the company of other UK firms recording double-digit PEP spikes, including Allen & Overy, Fieldfisher, Pinsent Masons, and Herbert Smith Freehills.  

UK managing partner, Shane Gleghorn, said that despite the firm’s “slow start” to the financial year due to the contraction caused by the onset of the pandemic, it was able to rebound thanks to a “significant uptick” in activity in the second quarter.  

Gleghorn said the flurry of activity in Q2 “resulted in the firm recording the highest ever revenue and profit for the UK business, which is a credit to our people”.  

He added: “We saw the onset of our investment strategy in people and technology contributing to these strong results." 

The firm said it plans to continue building its international platform following the significant investment it channeled into its non-UK network this year. In April, it joined a number of UK rival firms planning office openings in Ireland to adjust to the post-Brexit trading environment.  

More recently, it expanded its footprint in China with the launch of specialist intellectual property and trademark business, Beijing Tailun IP Agency.  

The London-headquartered firm elevated five lawyers to its UK partnership back in November. It also had success drawing in lateral talent, making a series of team hires from rival firms including an 11-lawyer private client team from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. The move bumped Taylor Wessing’s private client lawyer headcount to more than 100, making it one of the largest such teams in Europe.  

The firm made two subsequent team hires in the opening half of 2021, bringing on a structured real estate team from Greenberg Traurig in March and a corporate team from Stephenson Harwood in just a month later.