Mills & Reeve grows turnover figure by 22 per cent

Mills & Reeve has reported a sharp 22 per cent rise in turnover and 11 per cent growth in profit per equity partner (PEP).

Turnover at the Norwich-based firm rose from £40.4m to £47.9m at the end of the financial year. PEP rose by 11 per cent from last year's £226,000, hitting £253,000.

Managing partner Mark Jeffries attributed the slower PEP rise to the firm having hired six new partners in the last financial year, but predicted that 2006-07's PEP would see an improvement.

"I'm pleased with these figures and it's encouraging to see that, against all the new partners, the firm still increased underlying profits from £13.6m to £16.9m," he said.

He added that the firm recently paid staff bonuses totalling £650,000.

Jeffries said the firm had just ended a costly 24-month period of increases to the partnership and was now beginning a period of consolidation.

Corporate partners Craig Hodgson and Andrew Croome joined the firm from Eversheds in May, along with East of England senior partner Terry Gould and property partner Keith Hamilton. Property associate Caroline Dean was promoted to partner at the new firm.

The Eversheds corporate hires heralded instructions from new clients including Jaeger, Archant and Norwich City Football Club, as well as additional instructions from existing clients including hotel operator LHM, Grampian Foods, Accord and Aveva.

Overall the firm's corporate group had the strongest growth, with turnover up by 29 per cent.