BLP's turnover rockets 30 per cent in first half

The firm brought in £103m for the first six months of the 2010-11 financial year, up from £79m for the comparable period last year (11 November 2009).

The impressive performance this year is in contrast to a five per cent drop during the first six months of the 2009-10 financial year.

BLP pointed to strong performance across all divisions and a 60 per cent growth rate in its Moscow office, which launched in January 2009.

In a statement managing partner Neville Eisenberg said: “During the downturn we continued to invest and to drive forward major new initiatives directed at improving our service for clients. This has enabled us to grow market share at the premium end of the market.

“For example, over the last six months we have continued to develop our international offices; built on our strong relationships with our panel of preferred firms; launched the innovative BLP Managed Legal Service; and grown the number of Lawyers on Demand by over 50 per cent. We also continued to recruit some of the most highly regarded legal experts to boost our capabilities in key strategic areas, with announcements about a further seven new partners recruited by the firm in this financial year alone.”

The firm has embarked on an extensive lateral hiring programme, recruiting into tax, litigation and corporate. BLP also landed two key outsourcing deals for Thames Water and Colt Telecoms respectively, that will see the firm manage in-house legal functions on the behalf of these clients.

The 30 per cent growth rate is the highest so far of the 16 firms to have reported their revenues. The second highest was Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, which grew by 17 per cent with a boost from a 17-partner team from Halliwells.