Reynolds Porter Chamberlain

Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) has undergone a quiet revolution over the past five years, overhauling its partnership, reducing its exposure to the insurance market and targeting top-end work. All this has helped keep turnover and net profit on the upward trend.

At the 2011–12 year-end turnover was up 10 per cent from £61.8m to £68m, while net profit also improved by 10 per cent from £21m to £23m. Despite adding two to the firm’s all-equity partnership, which is now at 65, average profit per equity partner also improved by 8.2 per cent from £327,000 to £354,000.

While it may have been an expansive year for RPC with office openings in Bristol in January 2012 and the firm’s first overseas base in Singapore in October 2011, growth has been driven largely by its London headquarters. The firm has been on a hiring spree. In the three years to the end of 2010–11 it made 20 lateral hires, the impact of which is starting to hit the bottom line.

In August 2012 RPC launched its second office overseas in Hong Kong with a 40-member team led by five partners, four of which had joined the firm from Clyde & Co earlier in the year. In October 2012 the firm announced it had appointed Jennifer Fennerty from Goodwin & Procter as chief executive officer to lead the development of RPC’s non-legal operations across Asia.