Linklaters' top earner pocketed £3.4m last year

Linklaters' top earner pocketed £3.4m last year" />Linklaters' highest paid partner received £3.4m in the last financial year, according to the magic circle firm's first set of LLP accounts.

This partner received more than double the firm's average profit per equity partner (PEP), which in the 2007-08 financial year stood at £1.44m, and nearly twice the payment made to a plateau partner, which stood at £1.81m.

The sum paid to this partner was more than 17 per cent higher than that pocketed by the top earner during the previous financial year, when the top payment was £2.9m.

The accounts stated that certain partners were able to earn substantially more than the top of equity "because of additional entitlements due because of local arrangements or because of compensation payable to members on secondment to other jurisdictions, or because of payments associated with joining or retiring from Linklaters".

One Linklaters partner said the most likely partner to be on £3.4m would be someone who has relocated. He added: "My bet is on one of the partners that have moved from London to somewhere like Moscow or Tokyo as it's an expensive move."

Managing partner Simon Davies, who was unavailable for comment, is also a likely candidate to have received the top payment, having relocated from Asia, where he was regional managing partner, during the last financial year.

Linklaters chief financial officer Nick Heywood-Waddington, who is set to leave the firm to join White & Case (The Lawyer, 8 December ), declined to comment.

The accounts also show that the firm's US practice saw the highest level of growth over the course of the year with revenues up by 21.4 per cent to £73.2m compared to £60.3m in the previous financial year.

Continental Europe was close behind with a growth rate of 21 per cent from £394.6m to £477.6m, while Asia increased its revenues by 16.1 per cent from £114.8m to £133.3m.

The UK and the Middle East together still pulled in the most income with a £609.3m compared to £550.6m the previous year, but with a slower growth rate of 10.7 per cent.

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