Legal Business Blogs

Leadership pay at Clifford Chance up 7% in 2015/16 after falling the year before

Clifford Chance‘s (CC) 12-strong executive leadership group saw their combined pay packets increase by 7% to £15m, the firm’s LLP accounts for 2015/16 on Companies House reveal.

The Magic Circle firm’s management committee of 12 saw pay increase from £14m to £15m, after average pay decreased by around 7% per member in 2014/15. The firm moved from a 16 member committee in 2013/14 – which took home £20m – to a 12 member committee in 2014/15.

According to the accounts, revenue at CC was up to £1.39bn, up 3% from £1.35bn in 2015. The firm’s overall operating profit was up to £503m, up from £412m the year before.

The revenue breakdown for showed UK income was up to £489m for the 2015/16 financial year, an increase of 2.5% from the previous year where the firm reported income of £477m.

In the Americas turnover was up from 2014/15 from £156m to £175m in 2015/16 – an increase of 12% and the strongest region of growth for the firm. Asia Pacific also saw revenue growth for the CC of around 9% from £205m to £224m.

Continental Europe saw a small drop of around 4% from £469m in 2014/15 to £452m in 2015/16. The Middle East remained steady, increasing by £3m to £46m.

Staff costs increased slightly to £609m from £598m. The number of associates at the firm fell to 2,315 from 2,377, while the number of support staff was up to 2,781, a slight increase on the previous year’s total of 2,774. The average number of members at the firm remained steady at 461, up slightly from 458 the previous year.

In the firm’s financial results last year, CC saw profit per equity partner leap by 10% to £1.23m, the firm’s highest to date.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk