Barlow Lyde & Gilbert

UK 200 RESULTS 2010

It was a year of transition for Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG), with new management coming in and the firm deciding to concentrate on its core strengths of insurance and financial institutions.

BLG began the year with a number of key partner exits, including those of Roger Doulton, Neil Beresford and Toby Rogers, who left to join Clyde & Co.

Overall, the number of equity partners at the firm fell by one to 76, reflecting the fact that the firm has also brought people into the fold.

BLG hired DLA Piper insurance partners Mark Hemsted and Robert Muttock to launch an office in Manchester in April 2009.

The firm also brought in additional partners through the acquisition of Halliwells’ insurance practice in July this year, but the cost of that investment will be felt in the 2010-11 financial year.

In terms of profit shares, the bottom of the firm’s equity fell from £200,000 to £170,000, although the top end rose from £400,000 to £460,000. Average profit per equity partner has been at £350,000 for the past two years, down from £380,000 during 2007-08.

The firm’s traditional lockstep, which ran from 30 to 100 points, has been ditched in favour of an entirely merit-based compensation system based on three broad bands. The focus on individual performance also extends to associates, with the PQE payscale being replaced by a new competency framework.

Turnover at BLG fell by 6.2 per cent, from £86.9m to £81.5m, while net profit dropped by 1.1 per cent, from £26.9m to £26.6m.

The firm’s 60-partner litigation practice contributed 79 per cent to total turnover, the equivalent of £64.4m, or £1.07m in revenue per litigation partner.

UK 200 RESULTS 2009

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert’s (BLG) litigation practice helped it post a 6.4 per cent rise in turnover at the 2008-09 year-end, rising from £81.7m to £86.9m.

The 77-partner firm’s litigation practice brought in around 80 per cent of total fees at £69.8m, 9.6 per cent above last year’s £63.7m.

The corporate practice contributed £8.25m, while property was up marginally on the previous year, contributing £1.56m compared with £1.2m. The finance practice’s contribution remained relatively flat, rising from £1.2m to £1.3m.

In summer 2009 BLG launched a redundancy consultation with 49 staff and an undisclosed number of fee-earners. The move came just weeks after the firm had offered half of its September trainee intake £2,500 to defer for six months.

The news prompted one reader to post a comment on TheLawyer.com saying: “No wonder they're tight-lipped – for a predominantly litigation firm to have to make such deep cuts is quite something. ”

In an attempt to be less 'tight-lipped', BLG chief executive Clint Evans said the move was not only a response to current market conditions, in which many of the firm’s clients were themselves facing costs pressures, “but also part of a wider project of modernisation intended to safeguard the firm’s future prosperity as an employer”.

Outside the UK, BLG’s three international offices – Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai – made up £10.7m of last year's overall turnover. In total BLG had 11 partners outside the UK last year.

BLG operates a modified lockstep remuneration system under which all profits are distributed within one year of the previous financial year-end.

The firm said it was, in principle, in favour of the Government’s plans to allow external investment in law firms.