Fee income growth at the country’s top 100 law firms was 3.4 per cent in the third quarter of this year, according to figures from big four accountancy practice Deloitte. The researches claimed it was the slowest rate of growth for the best part of two years and the fourth consecutive quarter where growth has slowed.

Merger activity

Deloitte said UK law firms were growing at nearly 10 per cent at this time last year. The researchers claimed mid-tier firms were performing better than their larger counterparts, with a 5.8 per cent increase in revenue, but that merger activity was the ‘primary driver’ behind that figure.
In contrast, the survey found top-10 firms experienced effectively flat performance, growing by less than 1 per cent.

Tough market

Commenting on the figures, Deloitte professional services partner Jeremy Black said: ‘We continue to see suppressed growth rates in the legal market. Whilst the mid-tier firms appear to be enjoying slightly stronger growth, this is predominantly due to increased merger and acquisition activity.’ He forecast that consolidation would continue as ‘a tough, competitive domestic market is forcing a change in the profile of mid-tier firms’.
Emphasising that point, Deloitte maintained that its recent surveys had found that more than 70 of the mid-tier top-100 UK professional services firms had been in merger or acquisition talks in the past 12 months.



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