‘We celebrate achieving record revenue in a world that remains uncertain, but we know our market competitors continue to drive performance and that we need to perform and grow,’ Pinsent Masons senior partner Andrew Masraf tells Legal Business.
In Pinsent Masons’ latest financial year, the firm’s revenue grew 4.7% to a new high of £680m. But in a year where this came against roughly static PEP of £797,000, Masraf is fully aware of the gap between his firm and some competitors.
Across the LB100 as a whole, PEP grew by an average of 6.5% to £916,000 and, while smaller firms outpaced their larger rivals, Pinsents’ PEP growth lags the 4.6% average growth across the top half of the table and the 6.3% average growth across international firm peers.
‘Some firms have reported significant growth, whether that’s top line or profitability,’ Masraf acknowledges, adding: ‘I see that as a motivator – it’s within our gift to follow a similar trajectory.’
This disparity with some firm rivals has sharpened Masraf’s focus on searching for levers of growth to enhance performance.
‘There are always opportunities to enhance and refine our practices. When you’ve got 500 partners across 29 offices, those small improvements can collectively yield significant results. We see a lot of untapped potential in our business and markets and we’re going after it.’
‘Some firms have reported significant growth, I see that as a motivator’
Earlier this year Pinsents appointed two new external members to its board: Pippa Wicks, co-founder of management consultancy firm AlixPartners and Marcus Bokkerink, the former managing partner of Boston Consulting Group, to help drive growth across the firm. The pair bring complementary and overlapping skills, according to Masraf.
Next month, Pinsents’ partnership will gather in Barcelona where they will discuss the firm’s growth strategy and listen to external speakers, including a presentation from Rothschild on private equity investment in law firms.
‘It’s a unique two-month period when you can shape the narrative,’ says Masraf, who has just entered the final year of his term. ‘[At the conference] I want to talk about the next three years and the levers of growth we can utilise.’
In practice, these levers will likely involve bringing an analytical rigour to ensuring that each cog in the business turns with maximum efficiency.
In line with the ethos of utilising untapped potential, earlier this year Pinsents formally introduced a new sector – retail, sports & hospitality, to its industry focus mix. The move brings together existing expertise under a clear umbrella that works well with the firm’s footprint, which is spread across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
There will also be a focus on strengthening ‘the finance heartbeat from London’. Earlier this month the firm made a double hire in the capital, bringing across equity capital markets partner Nicholas Holmes from Ashurst and Dinesh Banai from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer to lead the firm’s US securities practice.
‘What relationship with the US do you need to access that share of wallet?’
However, Masraf says the firm is not planning any significant change in its international offering, pointing to its still relative infancy as reason to focus on building up existing offices rather than opening new ones.
‘We’re proud of the European foundation we’ve built from the ground up, but our oldest offices, Munich and Paris are still only 13 years old. We’ve built a platform but would like to see physical growth in Europe to provide the sustainable network for the client base we want to drive.’
Further from home, Pinsents is thinking creatively about how to maximise engagement with the world’s largest economies despite not having a major foothold in either, although it did open a new office in Shenzhen in China in February.
‘We’ve identified $3-4bn of US legal spend from US outbound trade coming into jurisdictions where we have an office. That narrows the question: what relationship with the US do you need to maximise that trading corridor, to access that share of wallet?’
In March Pinsents opened an office in Riyadh to build on its existing presence in the region and Masraf insists the office will be crucial for accessing both China and the US. ‘Saudi Arabia is like the Switzerland of the Middle East. It’s a neutral spot for China and America to meet, you can access these two huge economies without having much of a footprint in either,’ he reasons.
‘You need foundations in those economies but the bigger opportunity is what they are doing elsewhere,’ he insists. That said, Masraf acknowledges that the US remains a ‘big unanswered question’. ‘A US merger might be the answer, but you’d want to be clear how any merger would allow you to maximise a market opportunity.’
‘The single profit pool is a very precious aspect of our structure’
He acknowledges that Pinsents’ single profit pool could make any potential merger challenging. ‘There are regulatory, tax and profit issues that mean putting together a fully integrated merger might be harder, but the single profit pool is a very precious aspect of our structure,’ Masraf says.
While Masraf says the single profit pool reinforces a collaborative culture, it comes with its own challenges: ‘A single profit pool of course brings a degree of financial pressure – everything is integrated, whether it’s accretive to profit or not.’
He is reluctant to introduce a verein, despite noting the differences in chargeout rates between say Poland and the US, arguing that they don’t incentivise referrals or collaborative working. He adds: ‘Maybe you might need a verein to get [a merger] done, but, in my view, that shouldn’t be the end game.’
When asked if he plans to run for a second term, Masraf smiles, deflects and insists it isn’t on his mind. He is focused on galvanising the firm for the years ahead: ‘We’re doubling down on unlocking the full power of our offering and the good news is, it’s within our reach.’
Pinsent Masons saw revenue rise by 4.7% to a new record high of £680m over the year, a result senior partner Andrew Masraf (pictured) described as cause for celebration – while also acknowledging the scope for improvement.
National firm Blake Morgan, which has six offices across the UK, boosted PEP by 8% to £349,000 in 2024-25, against a 4.6% increase in revenue; however managing partner Mike Wilson (pictured) said PEP could have been higher still, but for the firm’s strategy of investing profit back into the business.
At Hogan Lovells, which put in one of the strongest performances of the international firms, with PEP up 9.1% to £2.4m, global corporate and finance head James Doyle (pictured) stressed the importance of adaptability in a fast-changing marketplace.
Response rates for London referees saw a double-digit increase this year, with rising by almost 12% to a new record high of more than 31,000.