Matthew Arnold & Baldwin

South-East firm Matthew Arnold & Baldwin (MAB) enjoyed a strong 12 months during 2011–12, with turnover up by 20 per cent to £15.8m, ending two years of flat revenue growth.

Tim Constable, a member of the management team, attributed the jump to a combination of overall transactional growth and the effects of a long-term cost-reduction strategy that started in 2008. The triple-digit growth of revenue from key clients such as Groupon has also contributed to a particularly strong year.

MAB has also been busy in the lateral hiring market. The arrival of asset-based lending partners Charny Sanghera and Andrew Bowden-Brown from Squire Sanders (where Bowden-Brown was a senior associate) in 2011 added to the firm’s client base, bringing in Close Brothers, Centric Commercial Finance, ABN Amro, Leumi ABL, IGF Invoice Finance and Lloyds TSB.

The increase of banking and finance work to the department also resulted in the employment of 35 temporary and permanent staff, mostly paralegals, last summer.

MAB plans to review of all of its Watford office space in 2014 with a view to taking larger single-office premises. It is also preparing to update software across the board.