Taylor Wessing‘s accounts have revealed that its best-paid partner received more than £10m during 2024-25, as the firm gears up for its transatlantic merger with Winston & Strawn.
The limited liability partnership (LLP) filing for the year to 30 April 2025 comes after partners at both firms voted through their transatlantic merger, with the newly combined Winston Taylor set to go live this May.
The accounts state that ‘the profit attributable… to the member with the largest entitlement was £10,387,583’ – up 34% from the previous year’s top figure of £7,750,000.
Revenue for the LLP, which includes the firm’s UK business, as well as subsidiary undertakings and joint ventures in the US, Ireland, Israel and a branch in Dubai, rose by 15% to £281.5m, up from £244.7m the previous year.
Profit before tax for the LLP was up by 18.5%, from £98.2m to £116.3m.
The firm, which operates under an international verein model, last summer reported total global revenues of £526m for 2024-25. However, the merger with US firm Winston will see Taylor Wessing’s UK business split from the verein, with the French and German arms of the firm retaining the Taylor Wessing brand and operating under a cooperation and referral arrangement.
While Taylor Wessing’s UK profit per equity partner (PEP) figure of £1.1m is significantly lower than Winston’s 2024 PEP of $3.5m (£2.6m), the top earner figure of £10.4m does indicate the the firm already has capacity to suitably reward its best performers.
The accounts also show that staff costs increased by 11% from £92.2m to £102.4m, in part due to an increase in headcount. Total staff increased by 5.4% from 797 to 840, while the number of fee earners increased marginally from 379 to 386.
The accounts state that ‘total remuneration for key management personnel’ was £10.7m, up from £9.3m, without specifying who key management personnel included.
A breakdown of revenue by region was also not disclosed, with the accounts stating that: ‘The board considers that such a disclosure would be prejudicial to the interest of the group.’
At the same time, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (HSFK) has also released its UK LLP accounts for 2024-25, the final full year before the transatlantic merger of Herbert Smith Freehills and Kramer Levin, which went live on 1 June last year.
The accounts show a revenue increase of 4% to £1.346bn, and on operating profit of £477.6m, up 9% from £438m.
Last July the firm reported that PEP had grown by 8.6% to £1.428m.
Staff costs increased by 6.5% to £649.1m, as the average number of staff employed during the year rose by 3.3% to 4,566.
The best-paid partner, ‘inclusive of other benefits and payments’, received £3.3m, up 10% from £3m.
The share of profits and salaries awarded to key management personnel – which includes the global CEO, regional and practice leadership, CFO, chief people officer and chief client officer – was £11.3m, up from £8.2m in 2024.
The accounts also provide a breakdown of revenue, with the firm’s UK and US offices contributing 48.5%, marginally down from 49.2% last year. Revenues from Australia inched up from 28% to 28.6%, while Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa was up from 14% to 14.8%. Asia saw a slight dip from 8.8% of total revenue to 8.2%.
The HSFK merger, which went live in June 2025, just seven months after the deal was first announced in November 2024, has created a firm with around 630 partners across 26 offices. Based on Kramer Levin’s account filings early in 2025, the merged firm will have projected revenues of around £1.7bn ($2.3bn), placing it on the fringes of the top 20 firms in the world by turnover.
