Browne Jacobson reports record year

Browne Jacobson has announced fee income of £35m - its highest turnover yet. The Midlands-based firm grew by 10 per cent on last year's turnover of £31.9m.

Revenue for the last financial year grew by a higher rate than for the previous year, when it was up by a modest 6 per cent on the previous year's total of £30.1m.

Managing partner Brian Smith told The Lawyer that this year's double-digit expansion was driven by particularly high growth in the property and business services departments, which grew by 31 and 26 per cent respectively.

In addition to growth in business services and property, there were client wins and new panel appointments for the insurance and public sector departments, with the Welsh Assembly government, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and the Health and Safety Executive all instructing Browne Jacobson over the year.

"The CGT changes towards the end of the tax year led to a lot of private equity buyouts and sales and retail transactions," Smith said. "The market downturn hasn't affected our corporate practice yet," he added.

Smith argued that the firm was somewhat insulated from the credit crunch by dealing with regional clients and smaller transactions than those typical of the City. "We do a lot of deals around the £20m mark. £80m is quite a big deal for us."

However, Smith emphasised that the firm was "not immune" to the trials of the liquidity squeeze and that he expected it to be hit at some point.