Goodman Derrick

Goodman Derrick has had an expansive year and, it appears, a highly successful one: revenue grew by four per cent, from £10.1m in 2010–11 to £10.5m in 2011–12, while average profit per equity partner remained static at £305,000.

The revenue rise is due primarily to two main factors.

The first is that it was a busy year for the firm’s property and corporate/finance groups, both of which increased revenue by 30 per cent, from £2.8m to £3.7m. The corporate partner count rose from seven to eight, with the turnover hike explained by a string of transactional mandates for key listed client Chime Communications.

The second factor is a hiring scheme under which Goodman Derrick has taken on corporate partners Simon McLeod from Bird & Bird, Paul Webb from Taylor Wessing and Edward Hoare from Charles Russell, as well as 2Birds contentious construction partner John Wright and Davenport Lyons litigation partner Stephen Hornsby.

Litigation was down from 25 to 17 per cent of turnover, representing a drop of roughly 30 per cent, from £2.5m to £1.8m. Most of this decrease was due to an inflated disputes result in 2010–11 as a result of a specific contentious mandate.

Firmwide, net profit stood at £3.79m, with the equity partnership counting an average of 12.4 members across the year.

Goodman Derrick’s equity spread was kind to those at the lower end of its modified lockstep. The bottom of equity was up by 10 per cent, from £200,000 to £220,000, while plateau was down by six per cent, from £350,000 to £330,000.