Bevan Brittan
UK 200 RESULTS 2010
Movement since 2009
Turnover (£M):
Profit per equity partner (£K):
Earnings per partner (£K):
Equity spread (£K):
Net profit (£M):
Profit margin (%):
Revenue per fee-earner (£K):
Revenue per lawyer (£K):
Revenue per partner (£K):
Revenue per equity partner (£K):
Total number of fee-earners:
Total number of qualified lawyers:
Total number of partners:
Total number of equity partners:
Total number of female partners:
Total number of female equity partners:
Total number of staff:
Leverage ratio (fee-earners per equity partner):
DOWN
37.7
288
200
150-340
6
16
169.1
203.8
785.4
1,795.2
223
185
48
21
15
4
357
7.81
Bevan Brittan was among the first top 100 firms to announce a redundancy programme in May 2008, with 40 positions being axed. This came after the firm’s net profit collapsed at the 007-08 year-end, from £9.6m to £6.1m.
In response to falling net profit (which resulted in a drop in average profit per equity partner at the 2007-08 year-end from £234,000 to £180,000), the firm voted out chief executive Stuart Whitfield and gave the former chief operating officer Andrew Manning the tough challenge of rebuilding the firm’s core business.
Manning pledged to restore net profit, and by shrinking the firm’s lawyer count and pulling away from sectors that were no longer profitable this is what he has achieved.
At the 2009-10 year-end net profit – excluding remuneration to fixed-share partners – stayed more or less static at £6m, although the total remuneration for all partners grew to £9.6m.
Average profit rose by 29.7 per cent, from £222,000 to £288,000. The firm’s equity partner headcount is smaller than it has been since its demerger from Ashfords in November 2004, contracting from a high of 41 in 2006-07 to 21 for the last financial year.
At the same time the equity spread has narrowed, with the bottom moving up from £121,000 to £150,000 and the top dropping from £377,000 to £340,000.
UK 200 RESULTS 2009
Movement since 2008
Turnover (£M):
Profit per equity partner (£K):
Earnings per partner (£K):
Equity spread (£K):
Net profit (£M):
Profit margin (%):
Revenue per fee-earner (£K):
Revenue per lawyer (£K):
Revenue per partner (£K):
Revenue per equity partner (£K):
Total number of fee-earners:
Total number of qualified lawyers:
Total number of partners:
Total number of equity partners:
Total number of female partners:
Total number of female equity partners:
Total number of staff:
Leverage ratio (fee-earners per equity partner):
SAME
41.1
222
153.6
121 - 377
6
15
162
197
734
1,522
253
209
56
27
15
6
411
6.74
When Andrew Manning took on the role as Bevan Brittan’s chief executive in 2008 he vowed to improve profit by an ambitious 37 per cent by the end of the 2008-09 financial year.
Manning’s goal has more than been achieved. The firm has hiked total profit by 50 per cent during the past financial year from £5.5m up to £8.6m last year.
The public sector practice accounts for roughly 50 per cent of the firm’s revenue. Winning mandates for local councils as well as some substantial cost cutting has contributed significantly to the firm’s profit hike.
Bevan Brittan cemented its relationship with Kent County Council in November last year teaming up with the council’s lawyers to offer a full range of legal services to NHS trusts.
Bevan Brittan also won a role advising local councils on their exposure to the failed Icelandic banking system. The firm won the instruction because of its place on the Legal Government Association’s panel.
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