Linklaters top equity guns for £1.25m

Linklaters is stepping up its drive to outstrip the income of magic circle rivals with plans to increase profitability by nearly 40 per cent in the next two years.

Sources have informed The Lawyer that Linklaters' management is expecting top of equity to reach £1.25m and bottom of lockstep to grow to £500,000 by 2005, equating to £50,000 per point.
Profits per partner would have to grow by 38.1 per cent from this year's £905,000 for the top of equity, or £36,500 per point. Lockstep starts at 10 points, with 25 points for plateau partners.
This year, The Lawyer 100 showed that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May reported plateau profits of £890,000 and £950,000 respectively.

The targets will depend on a continuance of the firm's internal restructure, which has resulted in the departure of 24 partners since April 2002.

Senior partner Anthony Cann said the firm decides its targets annually. He conceded that the firm expected to monitor partners' performance on an ongoing basis.