Lawrence Graham targets fifty per cent growth for corporate

Lawrence Graham has outlined plans to grow the revenue of its corporate department by more than 50 per cent over the next two years.

Corporate head Christopher Tite has targeted a revenue of £17m by 2008.

Lawrence Graham's total revenue for the last financial year was £66m, with the corporate department's revenue making up one-sixth of that. Corporate stands at around £11m and is projected to hit £14m in time for the 2007 financial results.

Tite said growth in workflow coming from abroad, particularly AIM floats of companies in the Asia-Pacific region and the US, will drive the growth in the future.

Corporate partner Victoria Younghusband has been key to raising Lawrence Graham's profile in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, which she visits regularly.

The firm now also takes on one secondee from a Chinese law firm every year.

The corporate department is made up of three groups, with 50 per cent of the lawyers working on capital-raising, 30 per cent on traditional M&A and the remainder advising on specialist tax issues.

The management team is likely to set new revenue targets at the start of 2007 for the following few years.