Bingham's London revenues jump 32 per cent in 2009

Bingham’s London office turnover for 2009 was $40.8m (£25.6m), up from $31m in 2008. The firm also posted a significant rise in revenue per lawyer, up 23 per cent from $816,000 to $1.05m.

Bingham’s London office managing partner James Roome said that while several of the office’s practice areas, including corporate, litigation and regulatory, had been busy the restructuring group had been particularly active during 2009.

“With the turn of the cycle restructuring really kicked in,” said Roome. “From our point of view the cycle was coming into our sweet spot towards the tail end of 2009.”

Bingham’s major mandates included acting for the senior secured noteholders on Greek mobile phone operator Wind Hellas’s €3bn (£2.62bn) restructuring and advising the bondholders in relation to the restructuring of all three nationalised Icelandic banks: Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir.

Roome, who also co-chairs Bingham’s global financial restructuring group, said it was an “open question” as to whether the current level of restructuring work would continue in 2010.

Firmwide Bingham’s gross revenue for 2009 was $860m, an increase of 12 per cent on 2008’s $767m, while average profit per equity partner rose 2 per cent from $1.42m to $1.45m.