Gordons
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):
UP
22
702
317.65
240-1600
8.4
38
142.9
252.9
647.1
2,000.0
154
87
34
11
6
2
244
6.91
Yorkshire firm Gordons prides itself on its stability. The firm has a balanced range of practice areas: commercial property, private client, risk and compliance, and general commercial work.
The firm has even kept on all of its qualifying lawyers and honoured all its training contract commitments.
Indeed, Gordons’ stability has served it well throughout the downturn: turnover grew by 1.5 per cent to £22m during the 2009-10 financial year; net profit was up by 28.4 per cent to £8.4m in a like-for-like comparison with the previous year; and the firm’s equity spread is highly impressive, ranging from £240,000 to £1.6m.
But Gordons is not about to rest on its laurels. According to managing partner Paul Ayre, the firm has put in place a three-year strategy whereby it will target potential corporate clients, either based in the North or that have decision-makers there, and lure them away from Yorkshire’s six biggest firms.
The ultimate aim is to increase turnover to above £30m within the three-year period. Ayre admits it is an ambitious plan, but he and his partners are convinced it is achievable.
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):
UP
21.7
475
232.4
300 - 1,000
6.5
30
136
293
638
1,808
159
74
34
12
6
2
274
5.17
Yorkshire firm Gordons saw its turnover trajectory slow in 2008-09. The firm reached an estimated £21.7m, up by just £500,000 on the year before.
The result was in contrast to 2007-08, when the Bradford and Leeds firm entered the top 100 for the first time off the back of a solid 13.5 per cent increase on the previous year.
There were big changes at the firm in the 2009 financial year, with the number of lawyers almost cut in half, from 142 in 2008 to 74 in 2009.
As a result, revenue per lawyer shot up by nearly 100 per cent from £149,000 in 2008 to £293,000 this year. Average profit per equity partner dropped from £642,000 to £475,000.
Managing partner Paul Ayre will remember the year for winning a big instruction from Morrisons in October 2008, on a 920,000 sq ft distribution centre in Kent. The hard-to-come by property deal pitched Gordons alongside City firms Herbert Smith and SJ Berwin.
There was more good news from the supermarket in the New Year, when Gordons acted on Morrisons’ £223m acquisition of 500,000 sq ft of extra selling space through the purchase of 38 Co-op and Somerfield stores located throughout the UK.
In June this year Gordons became one of 24 firms appointed to the Solicitors Regulation Authority's panel of intervention agents, which tackles law firms that pose a risk to clients’ money.
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