| Turnover: | £214m |
| Profit per equity partner: | £701,000 |
| Revenue per lawyer: | £357,000 |
| Total number of lawyers: | 600 |
Ashurst posted strong results during 2005-06, with average profit per equity partner (PEP) up by 23.6 per cent to £701,000 ($1.27m) compared with £567,000 ($1.03m) the previous year. But the impressive profit figure came on the back of modest growth in revenue to £214m ($389.5m), up by just 6 per cent on the previous year's figure of £201m ($365.8m).
Managing partner Simon Bromwich, who was re-elected in October 2006 for a second three-year term in the post, was quick to note that the rise in revenue was on the back of static headcount. However, closer examination shows that Ashurst has been undergoing a quiet restructuring, which has seen a certain amount of culling of the partner ranks.
The silver circle firm has embarked on a new strategy of focusing on complex transactional work for a core group of premium corporate and financial institutional clients in a bid to boost its revenue. As part of this, Ashurst is hoping to turn at least one other existing institutional client into another Royal Bank of Scotland, the firm's top-billing client. Ashurst also regularly advises Barclays Private Equity, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds TSB and Centrica.
Corporate and private equity continue to generate the largest slice of the firm's revenue (36 per cent). Indeed, one of firm's most notable mandates in 2005-06 was advising Candover as owner of bingo and casino operator Gala on its £2.18bn ($3.97bn) acquisition of bookmaking chain Coral Eurobet.
Ashurst has 12 offices worldwide, seven of which are in Continental Europe and the UK. Other locations include outposts in New York, Singapore and Tokyo, as well as a liaison office in New Delhi, which was established in 1994. This offering was further bolstered with its launch in Dubai in September 2005.
In January 2006, senior partner Geoffrey Green revealed ambitions for the firm's overseas outposts to generate at least a third of overall workload. Paris and Madrid already achieved their best-ever revenue figures in 2005-06.
As part of this, the firm ramped up in Germany and Italy in January 2006 with raids on Haarmann Hemmelrath and Allen & Overy respectively. However, the gains were to counteract a number of losses, such as a team in Munich, which included private equity heavyweight Jörg Kirchner, that joined Latham & Watkins in 2005.
| 
