If success is measured solely by numbers, then CMS Cameron McKenna has not had the best year. The firm has slipped one place in the UK 100 table, turnover is down 2.3 per cent to £163m and PEP has slipped even more, by 6.5 per cent to £384,000.

However, Camerons' management does not take the same view. Managing partner Dick Tyler recently said the firm had ªgiven up competing on PEPº and this year has followed a strategy of growing its market share in the three areas of financial services, energy and global industry. The 2004-05 financial period was also the first complete year the firm has operated under a full equity partnership.

As with many other firms, the key word has been `relationships', both with clients and partnership, with the focus on winning more business from an existing pool of between 25 and 50 key clients.

UK retail bank Lloyds TSB has been an important customer this year with a steady flow of work, including a £20m mezzanine bilateral facility for online supermarket Ocado and a £61m management buy-in for Robert Dyas. Camerons acted for National Grid Transco on the £5.8bn sale of regional gas distribution networks and also made its debut on a number of panels, including those for HSBC, General Electric and Accenture.

The management team has institutionalised its client feedback process, rolling it out across all practice areas. Partners are now reviewed every three months.

Despite a number of lateral hires, the partnership has shrunk by six to 132. The new faces include banking partner Douglas Colliver, who joined from Hammonds, and former Berwin Leighton Paisner head of hotels Daniel Braham. Camerons also benefited from the fallout at Coudert Brothers early in the current financial year, with its Moscow office snaring a team of five lawyers.