Eversheds

Eversheds posted its first turnover rise in three years in 2011-12 with revenue up 3 per cent to £366m. That figure is still some way off the firm’s pre-crash high of £390.5m in 2007–08.

Over the past three years, Eversheds has brought in new partners and spent more on marketing in a bid to target higher-value mandates in pensions, competition and financial services dispute resolution. In 2008-09, 82 per cent of Eversheds’ billed fees came from private sector work; in 2010–12, 88 per cent did.

The firm’s international offices played a part in the growth, too. Asia turnover was up by 26 per cent while the Middle East, boosted by Eversheds’ merger with consortium KSLG in May 2011, jumped 160 per cent.

The firm has put global integration at the heart of its strategic vision with chief executive Bryan Hughes telling partners he wants to establish a consistent level of service across its international network and is looking at creating a structure that can better police quality.

The firm announced another redundancy programme in January 2013 with up to 166 jobs at risk across the firm’s UK and Asia offices, with the Copenhagen office set to disappear altogether.

Asia Pacific

No. of lawyers: 68
Offices: 3

Eversheds has had a rocky time in the Asia-Pacific. Having only planted flags in the region in 2009 (in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore), in January 2013 the firm shook up its local management structure, putting in place a new Asia managing partner and a new director for Singapore.

Despite the top-tier shake up, new regional managing partner Stephen Kitts says no qualified staff at the junior level lost their jobs. “We've laid down some good foundations,” he reports, “having fully integrated this region as part of the global business. There are war stories at other firms. A lot of people pay lip service to being a totally integrated business, but we actually wanted to bring that theory to life and to make it happen, so we streamlined our management structure.”

And the firm has had some recent wins, with Kitts pointing to several un-named European corporate clients instructing the firm to handle their human resources matters across the region.