| Turnover | £666m | | Profit per equity partner | £656,000 | | Equity spread | £408,000-£1,020,000 | | Net profit | £219.8m | | Profit margin | 33 per cent | | Revenue per lawyer | £294,000 | | Revenue per partner | £1,535,000 | | Revenue per equity partner | £1,988,000 | | Total no of fee-earners | 2,314 | | Total no of assistants | 1,829 | | No of partners | 434 | | No of equity partners | 335 | | Total no of female partners | 64 | | Total no of female equity partners | 43 | | Total no of staff | 4,719 | | Leverage ratio (equity partners/fee-earners) | 5.5 | | Representative clients | Barclays
Baugur
Citigroup
Goldman Sachs
Malcolm Glazer | |
In July, Allen & Overy (A&O) became the first
magic circle firm to release its limited-liability partnership
(LLP) accounts.
According to the accounts, A&O's turnover
inched up 2 per cent, from £652m to £665.9m.
Meanwhile, PEP increased by 4.9 per cent from
£625,000 to £656,000. There are 20 partners at A&O
who each earn more than £1m.
A&O's corporate department had a very difficult
year. But the group, headed by Richard Cranfield,
made a comeback in the last financial year, with
turnover at £245m (though that figure includes
general commercial and telecoms work). However,
banking had a poor showing ± down £10m to
£180m.
Indeed, over the course of the 2004-05 financial
year, the firm landed a handful of public bids,
including the mandate to advise US sports tycoon
Malcolm Glazer's successful bid for Manchester
United.
The team also strengthened its relationship with
longstanding Linklaters client BT after partner Paul
Burns bagged his first corporate deal for the FTSE100
company. Meanwhile, Alistair Asher advised HBOS
on its failed bid for Abbey.
A&O claims that it is the main corporate adviser
to around 15 FTSE100 companies ± and although
The Lawyer's research suggests far fewer, the firm
is certainly the main adviser to Alliance & Leicester,
Rexam, Royal & SunAlliance, the Saga Group
and WPP.
The accounts revealed a conservatively run business
boasting a cash surplus of £59m at the end of
the financial year. As first revealed by The Lawyer
(11 July), that figure was created through profit
retention over the past few years. Despite the sizeable
war chest, partners at the firm contribute an
average of £368,000 in capital.
It is understood that £42m of the surplus has
been earmarked for funding the fitout of A&O's
new building in Spitalfields. The firm has already
spent £6m on the offices, with the rest of the costs
being provided by up to £50m in separate banking
facilities.
Meanwhile, operating costs were slashed by £5m
to £274.3m. This figure includes the staff bonus
pool. In 2005 that pool came to £19.1m, up from
£16m in the previous year.
A&O currently has 95 fixed-share partners whose
average remuneration stands at £259,000. Equity
partners start at 20 points, moving up to 50 over
15 years. Average profit per point stands at £20,085.
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