Clydes revenue held back by litigation slump

Clyde & Co’s half-year turnover has crept up by five per cent to £68m, with flat litigation and insurance work holding back corporate growth.

Chief executive Peter Hasson said the effort the firm had put in to building its corporate and commercial practice since the last corporate boom had paid off, with non-contentious departments supplying much of the growth in the past six months.

“We think we’re in good shape compared to the last time we faced these sort of conditions,” Hasson told The Lawyer.

However, low levels of activity in Clydes’ core areas of insurance and litigation have held back overall growth, although Hasson added that he expected turnover at year-end to be up by 8 or 9 per cent from 2006’s £125m.

Hasson said that work in the firm’s international offices, particularly the Middle East and Moscow, was busy. He said that the recent hire of an aviation team from US firm Condon & Forsyth, coupled with hires in Hong Kong and the launch of a Shanghai office, should start to bear fruit during the next six months.

Work in the firm’s aviation and asset finance departments, following the July 2005 merger with aviation boutique Beaumont & Son, is also busy, Hasson said.