The real estate market, perhaps more than any other, is cyclical, and real estate lawyers will always be wary of where the crash lies. Recent moves to increase interest rates, with potential for more in the short term, have thus far made little difference, but they will.

Several firms have moved to shore up their practices by diversifying into funds and finance transactions, and the long-awaited arrival of real estate investment trusts (Reits) has given lawyers plenty of chargeable hours to fight for.

Overall, though, 2005-06 was one of those years that real estate lawyers would die for. Multimillion-pound deals, and in some cases multibillion-pound deals, skyrocketing rents and never seen before interest in investment opportunities were the norm in one of the hottest 12 months ever witnessed in the property sector.

In such a buoyant market it is not surprising that firms with strong real estate offerings have seen marked increases in their departmental turnovers. The top 15 performing real estate practices of 2005-06 all increased their turnovers by double-digit percentages, with some reaching up to 30 per cent growth.

Linklaters was the big mover and shaker of the year. Its turnover reached £65m in a performance that had Silk Street toasting a record year in the sector. This was characterised by practice head Patrick Plant's £1bn InterContinental Hotel sale of 73 hotels and the £530m sale of Knightsbridge Estate, led by partner Chris Coombe.

Linklaters' real estate practice inched up its contribution to the firm's total revenue to 7 per cent and real estate played a key role in helping the firm's overall stellar year, as practice revenue shot up by some 35 per cent.

The 41 partners for Linklaters in this area gives it a market-leading revenue per partner (RPP) of £2.1m, which is up by nearly two-thirds on its effort for 2004-05. The firm was ranked eighth in the RPP table in 2004-05, but has moved clear of its nearest rival at the top this year.

Clifford Chance retains its position at the top of the real estate turnover tree and saw a return to form after suffering a dip in its real estate turnover for 2004-05. This year the firm rebounded strongly, posting a 21 per cent increase in turnover, while increasing slightly its share of the firmwide turnover to 8 per cent.

The turnover increase helped the firm push its RPP up by some 36 per cent, the third-largest increase in the table this year, although that figure was helped by the firm having five fewer partners at the end of the 2005-06 financial year than it did the previous year.

Clifford Chance's stellar year saw Eversheds lose ground in the race to be the top real estate practice in The Lawyer UK 100 Annual Report. Eversheds' real estate turnover increased by a respectable 16 per cent, but it was not enough to match the 21 per cent from Clifford Chance. Eversheds had made up ground last year with Clifford Chance's slump, but the firm failed to capitalise on it this year. The rise in turnover was enough to see Eversheds' RPP inch up over the £1m mark for the first time. The 7 per cent rise was assisted by the additional six partners the firm added in the year. The firm also saw partner Lee Ranson take over from Cornelius Medvei as practice head for real estate.

DLA Piper's real estate turnover for its Europe and Asia offices increased by a modest 11 per cent last year to rank it fourth. The increase is the second-lowest in the top 10, just ahead of the struggling Allen & Overy (A&O). DLA Piper head of real estate David Taylor estimated that, had integration with the firm's US offices been completed, the real estate turnover for the firm would have doubled to reach the £130m mark. The wide geographic coverage sees the firm hold 72 real estate partners, an increase of 11 from the previous year, including the key lateral hires of Jeffrey Bailey from Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, Michael Cassidy from Hammonds and Howard Bassford from Herbert Smith. The extra partners saw the firm's RPP dip by nearly 6 per cent.

Berwin Leighton Paisner's (BLP) real estate practice enjoyed 23 per cent growth in the past financial year, with its £52m turnover coming from the core areas of commercial real estate, planning, construction and regulation (eg licensing and health and safety). The firm accounts for its real estate litigation, real estate finance and real estate funds turnover in its litigation, finance and corporate practices respectively.

The real estate practice contributed some 36 per cent of BLP's overall turnover, making it one of the firms most heavily reliant on real estate for its overall health. After adding a number of partners in 2004-05, including the key coup of snaring practice head Robert MacGregor from Clifford Chance, the firm made no lateral partner hires to real estate in 2005-06. Instead, it added depth by recruiting some 30 new fee-earners. This helped the firm increase its RPP by 20 per cent. MacGregor used his contacts with Canary Wharf to secure Wood Wharf as a new client for the firm, while it also started working for Omega Land (Morgan Stanley's real estate fund subsidiary), Land Securities Trillium and Quintain. The firm's key property clients remain Tesco, Legal & General and UBS.

A&O could only increase its real estate turnover by 10 per cent in the 2005-06 financial year, and the result saw its RPP dip by 8 per cent as the firm continued to lose ground on its magic circle rivals. The firm performed very well in 2004-05 with an outstanding year, but failed to capitalise and was brought back to earth as BLP overtook it on the turnover table. A&O was opposite Linklaters on the Knightsbridge Estate deal, advising the Irish purchaser. A&O also used its banking muscle to land roles on mega Europe funds such as the E2bn (£1.35bn) HBOS Insight Real Estate Investment Trust and JPMorgan's E5bn (£3.37bn) fund, while also picking up its first mandates from names such as Brixton and Land Securities.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer benefited from a surge in investment in the German market, and with the addition of just one partner over the course of the year was able to increase its RPP by 27 per cent. Its turnover also scaled similar heights to break through the £50m barrier for the first time.

Addleshaw Goddard saw its real estate turnover move past the £40m mark for the first time, with a 13 per cent growth, which saw the practice contribute a quarter of the firm's overall turnover. The firm continues to split its real estate work across its London, Leeds and Manchester offices, with the northern regions competing successfully in the local markets as well as making a cost-effective solution for the overflow of work out of London. The firm has a heavy focus on regeneration work, with rated planning and environment head Douglas Evans leading on the £500m urban regeneration of the Western Growth Corridor in the East Midlands.

For accounting purposes, Addleshaws' real estate turnover of £40.3m includes core real estate, planning and environment and real estate litigation in their entireties. The firm splits its construction group revenue with the litigation department for contentious work. Real estate finance work is split with the banking practice, while real estate funds work is split three ways with the corporate and tax practices.

SJ Berwin head of real estate Bryan Pickup is a very happy man after his practice grew its turnover by more than 30 per cent, the best result by a firm outside the magic circle. The firm had set its budget for a 10 per cent increase. The £7m leap in turnover, to £32.5m, saw the firm leapfrog Herbert Smith, which itself had a busy year handling the bun fight over the Stratford City development while continuing to be the chief counsel to key industry player Hammerson.

SJ Berwin's real gain in the rankings was made in the RPP table though, where it moved from eleventh place last year to fifth, with a 36 per cent increase to £1.5m. The leap rivalled that made by Clifford Chance and was second only to Linklaters'. SJ Berwin advised Axa Real Estate Investment Managers UK on its successful bid for the mandate to manage the £2.5bn property portfolio of the Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS), then turned that into regular work for the CIS. The firm also completed some £1.5bn worth of deals for its trophy client British Land, and was also appointed to the Crown Estates panel to advise on its Regent Street portfolio.

Nabarro Nathanson saw its real estate growth outstrip the firmwide performance with a 15 per cent increase that is relatively conservative given the gains made by some of its rivals. The firm gained ground on Addleshaws and Lovells, but was all but static in increasing its RPP by just 4 per cent. Nabarros helped change the face of Cardiff with its work for a joint venture between key client Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres on a one-million sq ft redevelopment of the city centre. The firm is still the key property adviser to Land Securities, although other firms have continued to pick away at the edges, and the firm would have been disappointed that it failed to secure the corporate mandate on the Reit conversion. Other key clients include Slough Estates, Quintain, Great Portland Estates and Morley Fund Management.

Shoosmiths, Taylor Wessing and Trowers & Hamlins make their first appearances in the top 20 table.

Taylor Wessing's German operations boosted the turnover enough to see it make an entrance, but it has a woeful RPP figure of just £540,000.

Trowers' real estate practice, at 39 per cent of the firm's total turnover, was a drop in share of total turnover from the previous year. The firm has a heavy focus on social housing work and saw its practice revenue leap by 21 per cent.

Shoosmiths, which is paying increasing attention to real estate and had an increased return from its volume business Property Direct, saw its practice revenue increase by 25 per cent.

The hot competition this year saw Macfarlanes drop out of the top 20 real estate firms, despite increasing its turnover by nearly 12 per cent. The firm remains a highly profitable outfit, with an RPP of £1.4m, which remained rather static with just a 4 per cent increase.

Norton Rose was also a firm that failed to make the top 20 turnover table. Norton Rose's real estate practice contributes 6 per cent, or £12.6m, to the firm's overall performance, a figure that has remained stagnant over the past 12 months. Its key instruction for the year was the £1.3bn acquisition by ING Real Estate Investment Management of the entire portfolios of Scottish Mutual and Scottish Provident. They then floated and securitised part of the 128-property portfolio.

Major Deals 2006

£1.3bn acquisition of Scottish Mutual and Scottish Provident property portfolios by ING Real Estate Investment Management; Co-Operative Insurance Society appointing Axa Real Estate Investment Managers to manage its £2.5bn property portfolio; £1bn sale of 73 UK hotels by InterContinental Hotels to a Lehman Brothers-led consortium; £4bn Stratford City development