Addleshaw Goddard

Addleshaw Goddard’s turnover rose five per cent, from £161.9m in 2010–11 to £170m in 2011–12. The firm went through two rounds of redundancies in the past two years, the second of which in June 2012 saw 24 fee earners at risk.

Senior partner Monica Burch said it was vital for Addleshaw Goddard to deliver a good profit in 2011–12 to remain competitive, and the redundancies were made, said the firm, because the lack of turnover at the managing associate and legal director level had created a bulkhead that was preventing younger lawyers moving up the ranks. Clifford Chance announced that it was cutting associates for the same reason in March 2012.

The medicine seems to have worked; Addleshaw Goddard’s 36 per cent rise in average PEP in 2011–12, from £328,000 to £446,000, was accompanied by a 30 per cent rise in net profit, from £34.4m to £44.9m.

Litigation was one of the firm’s strongest-performing practice areas, growing nine per cent. Litigation is Addleshaw Goddard’s highest-billing business, raking in £37.4m in 2011–12, but finance and projects was not far off, generating £37.3m.

Burch said the firm’s turnover growth was most likely due to Addleshaw Goddard's winning market share in the UK, since only around 20 per cent of work is derived from international sources. That should change in the near future following the launch of offices in Dubai and Singapore in 2012.

There can be no doubt that Addleshaw Goddard is looking healthier than it did at the same point last year and the year before that, but the firm is still vulnerable to partner raids.

The loss of arbitration partner Kent Phillips — who was supposed to head the new Singapore office — to Berwin Leighton Paisner and rising corporate star James Dawson to Macfarlanes were blows.