Garrigues tops Spanish revenue league

Garrigues continues to be the largest Spanish law firm both in terms of income and total number of lawyers, but revenue per lawyer (RPL) is still substantially lower than at its major competitors.

According to the annual ranking of Spanish law firms published by the newspaper Expansion, Garrigues brought in Euro296.8m (£256.5m) during its 2008 financial year, a 14.8 per cent increase on the previous year. Profitability over the same period grew by 15 per cent, although the firm declined to specify the exact profit figure.

In terms of total turnover Garrigues was ahead of the next largest firms with Spanish operations - Cuatrecasas Goncalves Pereira, Uria Menendez, Clifford Chance and Gomez-Acebo & Pombo. These firms brought in Euro240.6m (£207.9m), Euro174.8m (£151m), Euro74.7m (£64.6m) and Euro61.1m (£52.8m) respectively.

Despite experiencing a fall in global revenues of five per cent (1 July 2009), Clifford Chance actually grew in Spain. But at one per cent growth this was the smallest rate among the group of five largest firms.

RPL at Garrigues was significantly lower than at the firm’s competitors. It had a total of 1,954 lawyers and a RPL of Euro151,894 (£131,414). This compares with RPL at Cuatrecasas of Euro272,171 (£235,253), Euro351,710 (£304,016) at Uria & Menendez, Euro455,488 (£393,721) at Clifford Chance and Euro218,996 (£189,299) at Gomez-Acebo & Pombo.

The reporting periods for the firms surveyed differed, with Garrigues’ financial year running from August 2007 until August 2008 rather than reporting for the calendar year, as many of its rivals do.