Clarke Willmott

Turnover (£m): 36.6
Average PEP: 141
Equity spread (£k): 93-163
Profit margin (%): 16
RPL (£k): 195

Clarke Willmott’s revenue took another tumble during 2010-11, dropping by 10 per cent, from £40.8m to £36.6m. This was on the back of a 14 per cent drop during the previous financial year. The South West firm’s chief executive Stephen Rosser ­attributed the latest drop in fee income to a large, one-off, long-running contingent matter, which was accounted for in 2009-10.

On a more positive note, average profit per equity partner (PEP) rose by 5.5 per cent, from £163,000 to £172,000. ­However, the firm’s management elected to withhold a portion of the profit to ­reinvest in the business, potentially ­including an upgrade of the IT ­infrastructure at the firm.

This resulted in Clarke Willmott’s actual PEP seeing a decline of 13.5 per cent to £141,000. The equity spread, meanwhile, stood at £93,245-£163,000. It is worth noting that the bottom of equity figure does not account for a one-off payment of £35,000 paid to a partner who retired early in the financial year.

The number of qualified lawyers at Clarke Willmott has dropped from 220 to 188. This, claimed Rosser, who is six months into his four-year tenure, was down to natural attrition and not as a result of any redundancies.

Clarke Willmott operates an entirely merit-based remuneration system and has three classes of partners - salaried, prior share and full share.