Paul Weiss has broken through the $2bn global revenue mark, posting a 10.8% hike on last year, as the firm’s bold London recruitment drive continues to make headlines.
The firm’s 178 equity partners took home an average of $6.5m in 2023, with profit per equity partner (PEP) up 14.8% from $5.73m the previous year.
Continue reading “Paul Weiss and Kirkland break revenue records amid London lateral shakeout”
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan posted an impressive set of 2023 financial results for its London office today (10 January), with revenue up 47% to £196.6m and profit up a staggering 60% to £153.6m, with a profit margin of 78%.
London senior partner Richard East (pictured), who founded the office in 2008, said: ‘We are extremely pleased with our 2023 results. It is a stunning achievement for a “disputes only” practice to approach £200m in revenue, especially taking into account the number of partners we have in London. This year’s results were boosted by a material one-off success fee, but even without this fee the office has very significantly improved revenue and profit as against 2022.’ Continue reading “‘Stunning achievement’: revenue and profit surge at Quinn’s London office”
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The last two years have seen enormous growth in the legal market. With reports of record profits for many firms, particularly in the top 100, equity partners have enjoyed a considerable boost to their earnings. However, the need to resource this surge in demand for legal services has created a battle for talent and a consequent increase in the salaries of employees and non-equity partners, in order to attract and retain that talent. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Concerned about your PEP in market uncertainty?”
In what it calls the ‘most successful year in the firm’s history’, Hogan Lovells has added $300m to its top line as revenue increased 13% from $2.3bn to $2.6bn.
It posted an even more striking profit result, with PEP shooting upwards 26% from $2m to $2.5m. Revenue per lawyer also saw a healthy 17% increase from $884,000 to just over $1m. Continue reading “Hogan Lovells hails ‘record’ financial results as revenues and profits soar”
Ensuring that last year’s striking financial performance was no fluke, White & Case has unveiled another set of enviable results as 2021 global revenue jumped 20% from $2.4bn to $2.87bn.
London partner and executive committee member Oliver Brettle (pictured) told Legal Business that the firm’s global revenues had grown by 76% in five years, and that the latest increase marked White & Case’s largest annual jump in 25 years. Continue reading “Rocketing revenues at White & Case as London sees another double-digit boost”
Listed firm Knights has returned to form with a 9% organic growth in revenue to £59.7m in its half-year results.
This marks a significant reverse from its H1 results last year, when the firm conceded that a slew of acquisitions masked a 15% fall in turnover in real terms.
Knight’s buyouts of smaller firms continued apace this year though, with it strengthening in Yorkshire through the £11.5m purchase of Keebles, as well as expanding in the south east with the £5.3m acquisition of Mundays. The firm also entered the north east with the £5.2m takeover of Teeside-based Archers, completed in November. When including this raft of add-ons, revenue jumped by 29% for the period.
Knights attributed the organic upturn to improved client demand, as well as an expansion of its services. Chief executive David Beech (pictured) told Legal Business: ‘M&A was a big success for us in the past year – it’s been a boom period in that regard for most firms. But our entrance into Teeside we feel gives us a unique platform to take advantage of its new Freeport. The practice is modest in size, but big in opportunity.’
The firm saw its underlying profit before tax rise an impressive 26% to £7.6m and also boasted of ‘exceptionally strong cash conversion’ of 105%, up on the 103% reported this time last year.
According to Beech, Knights made 20 ‘senior level hires’ this year (including lawyers but also other professionals such as bankers), bringing with them significant client relationships which likewise boosted organic growth. This remains broadly consistent with the 18 such additions reported last year.
Beech said: ‘If you compare ourselves with previous years, we have recruited really well. Especially as we are in a very competitive period for partner-level recruitment. There’s a push away from the old partnership model, particularly from the next generation of lawyers. This has coincided with us being much surer of who we are as a brand – people read about us and appreciate our unique structure.’
As regards upcoming acquisitions, Beech said: ‘watch this space’. On that front, the firm has recently agreed a £60m revolving credit facility to create ‘significant headroom’, and ‘to continue to scale our business across the UK organically and through selected acquisitions.’
Listed firm Knights may have posted a robust 45% rise in 2021 half-year revenues from £31.9m to £46.2m, but acknowledged that without its slew of acquisitions turnover dropped in real terms from the same period last year by £4.8m (15%).
The results came after a year in which Knights opened in Leeds through the £20.1m buyout of Shulmans, while also establishing a south east presence through the acquisition of ASB Law in a deal worth up to £8.5m. The £8m purchase of Nottingham-based Fraser Brown in February 2020 marked the firm’s tenth acquisition since its listing in June 2018. Continue reading “Acquisitions mask decline in organic growth as Knights releases Covid-hit H1 financials “
Showing no sign of pandemic-induced slowdown, US-bred dispute resolution specialist Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has hiked London revenues by 27% to reach £127.4m.
There was further cause for cheer for the firm as profits shot up 34% to around £91m, putting the office’s profit margin at an impressive 71%. Continue reading “Quinn Emanuel defies crisis with striking 27% spike in City turnover”
DWF has continued its recovery in 2020/21, according to the firm’s half-year results, following a torrid year that saw debts rise and underlying profit plunge.
The results announced today (10 December) reveal net revenue standing at £167.6m for the H1 period ending 31 October, an impressive increase of 15% on the £145.2m the firm posted for the same period last year. The firm’s organic revenue growth, meanwhile, stood at 3% while gross profit recorded a double-digit hike, rising almost 14% to £83.1m. Continue reading “‘Things are looking pretty good’: DWF continues recovery with strong half-year results after tumultuous 2019/20”
Cooley’s London outpost has outpaced the West Coast firm’s global revenue growth for the third consecutive year, rising 9% to $72.9m five years after its launch.
The results disclosed today (13 February) show a global revenue increase of 8% to $1.33bn while profits per equity partner (PEP) rose 6% to $2.54m in 2019. Continue reading “Cooley’s City base passes $70m revenue mark as global growth slows”
