Stephenson Harwood’s UK growth surge stalls

Stephenson Harwood’s UK growth surge stalls" />Stephenson Harwood's UK growth has stalled, with the international offices managing to pull up the firm's overall revenues by 4 per cent this half year to around £40m.

This is set against a background to the firm's impressive 2007-08 financial year results, which saw global turnover for the year rising by 19 per cent to £85.3m (TheLawyer.com, 12 June).

Stephenson Harwood chief executive Sunil Gadhia (pictured), said: "Overall I think it's been pretty solid across the board. Even areas of the business that you'd expect to be significantly down like real estate - real estate is down on last year but nothing like the level one might fear in this environment."

London revenues were at the same level as they were last year, but significant growth from outside of London took the overseas offices up to around 25 per cent of total turnovers this half-year.

He added that the international finance practice was doing well and that the immediate pipeline of work going forward was "healthy", although the beginning of the next calendar year would be more difficult to predict.

In the last full financial year, revenue in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai grew by 7 per cent while Singapore managed a 34 per cent turnover increase. The Paris and Piraeus offices managed growth rates of 148 per cent and 111 per cent respectively.

To read Stephenson Harwood’s UK 200 report, click here.