Ashurst showed promising results during 2004- 05 after the firm's financial performance rebounded, although unfortunately not enough to cancel out the disappointing results of the previous year. Turnover inched up 2 per cent to reach £201m after the firm recorded static revenues of £197m over the two previous financial years.

Meanwhile, average PEP bounced back 9 per cent to £567,000. But this increase was not enough to counteract the poor results in 2003-04, when PEP tumbled 11.7 per cent to £521,000, down from £590,000 in 2002-03.

Partner profit share ranged from £287,000 at the bottom of equity to £718,000 at the top. This was a significant improvement on 2003-04, but it still failed to get the firm back to its position of 2002- 03, when the bottom of the equity got £320,000 and the top £800,000. In 2003-04 the firm suffered a collapse in financial performance, when profit share ranged between £273,000 and £681,000. Overall, Ashurst's financial performance shows that the firm is back on track, indicating that the tough line taken by new managing partner Simon Bromwich has been working.

Since taking over from Justin Spendlove in January last year, Bromwich has cut a number of underperforming partners and made a concerted effort to get the firm's leverage right across all its practices, resulting in a number of assistant cuts, both strategies quickly feeding through to the bottom line. Despite the improvement the firm has suffered a number of setbacks, notably the the loss of Paris rainmaker Thomas Forschbach and his team to Latham & Watkins.

All in all, though, Ashurst looks like a much healthier ship than it did a year ago and has proven this with new client wins, such as its new position on the City section of Abbey's panel and advancing its role as a lead adviser on the Apax panel.