Editor's weekly: Financial woes
The financial reporting season for law firms is in full swing and as predicted most partners have seen profit share tumble.
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance, which announced its year-end results yesterday, has seen its profit per equity partner (PEP) for 2008-09 slide by a whopping 37 per cent to £733,000 - a level last seen eight years ago (see story).
Similarly, national firm Addleshaw Goddard has seen its PEP plummet by 31 per cent from £586,000 last year to £405,000 this year (see story).
In stark contrast, however, firms specialising in insurance have bucked the trend and have reported record results thanks to an upsurge in litigation. As reported by Lawyer2B.com’s sister title The Lawyer on Monday (29 June) insurance giant Clyde & Co has become the latest to post results that are the envy of its corporate-led rivals. Clydes’ turnover for 2008-09 was up 17.8 per cent from £157m to £185m.
Ince & Co, which has a strong marine practice, unveiled a 23.5 per cent turnover rise at the year-end to reach £79.4m from £64.3m a year earlier. Kennedys, which has focused on the growth of a volume arm over the past year, reported a 30.7 per cent rise in turnover to £67.3m. It is the firm’s largest year-on-year growth in more than five years.
Beachcroft, meanwhile, has also reported its largest year-on-year turnover increase since the 2005-06 year-end, up 6 per cent, from £114m to £121m.
Elsewhere, if you haven’t noticed summer is now in full swing and so is the vacation scheme season. Therefore, as always we’ve lined up some student bloggers to tell us about their vac scheme experiences. Kicking off is Birmingham University law student Toby McCrindle who has written about stepping out of his comfort zone by ordering his first-ever skinny latte (read article)!
Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 2-Jul-2009 10:02 pm
Sorry but this is lazy journalism. How can you use PEP as an indicator for two firms then use turnover for the others. Lots of firms have actually had rising turnover but falling PEP. Why not compare PEP against PEP, or at least explain some of the costs that may have impacted CC's PEP this year such as a staff restructuring that was costed into the last financial year.
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