Gateley

Headline turnover comparisons for Gateley show a 2.4 per cent drop from £63m in 2010–11 to £61.5m in 2011–12. Headline turnover comparisons can be misleading, however.

In The Lawyer UK 200 2011 Gateley also included revenue from HBJ Claims Solutions (Scotland), the main commercial business of the group. In 2012 it stripped that revenue out of the turnover figure it provided.

HBJ Claims Solutions has a significant share of the motor claims and personal injury market north of the border and operates under a separate brand. The firm said it decided to separate the business from the main commercial operation in recognition of the specialist nature of this market segment. Consequently, if only the legal services fees are compared from 2010–11 to 2011–12, there has been a 7 per cent increase in turnover, from £57.4m to £61.5m. That turnover can be broken down further into the English side of operations, which contributed £46m, and the Scottish arm HBJ Gateley, which made £15.5m.

Gateley subsumed a large chunk of Halliwells’ teams in 2010, bolstering turnover by 27 per cent by bulking up in numerous areas, including banking, corporate, real estate, commercial litigation, IP, employment and construction.

The corporate and property practices saw healthy turnover growth with a 30 per cent increase in the former, from £27m to £35m, and a 12 per cent rise in the latter, from £17.3m to £19.4m. Litigation saw a 30 per cent drop, from £5.4m to £3.8m. Net profit to be distributed among the full equity partners grew from £14m to £14.5m in 2011–12, while the profit margin was 23.5 per cent.