Taylor Wessing
Taylor Wessing has been relatively quiet in terms of international growth since the 2002 merger between the UK’s Taylor Joynson Garrett and German firm Wessing, but indications are that the firm is back in expansion mode.
Turnover (£m): 192.3
Average PEP: 402
Equity spread (£k):244-723
Profit margin (%): 33
RPL (£k): 301
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Governance -
The firm’s management, led by popular managing partner Tim Eyles, is interested in setting up shop in Hong Kong, Singapore and the Middle East as it looks to leverage its private client, corporate and life sciences reputation. Hong Kong and Singapore are likely to come first. The firm is already in the advanced stages of an exploration scheme overseen by London corporate partner Robert Fenner and Munich partner Michael-Florian Ranft, although nothing is expected in the next year. A Middle East launch has been put off as the region emerges from the effects of the Arab Spring.
UK turnover was up by 9 per cent, from £84.5m to £92.1m, for the 2010-11 financial year, marking a definite improvement from the 7 per cent drop the previous year.
Globally, turnover was up by 8 per cent to £192.3m from £177.9m. Taylor Wessing has separate profit pools in different jurisdictions, but provided a global average profit per equity partner (PEP) of £402,000. UK PEP is considerably higher at £537,000, up by 18.5 per cent on 2009-10.
The firm is pressing ahead with its ’global key client’ programme, which sees more of an emphasis on clients providing work in a number of jurisdictions. It split the role of chief operating officer (COO), held by former employment partner Jonathan Croucher, into two, hiring board members Clare Singleton as COO from Deloitte and Caroline Rawes as head of HR from Linklaters.
Taylor Wessing has a managed lockstep based on how much business partners generate, their management contributions and roles in business development. The decision is based on a judgement by an elected body of partners rather than a numerical weighting system.
