Ashurst posted a strong profit during 2005-06, with PEP up 23.6 per cent to £701,000 compared with £567,000 the previous year. But this figure came on the back of a modest growth in revenue to £214m, up just 6 per cent on the previous year's £201m.

Managing partner Simon Bromwich, who is up for re-election in January 2007, says the rise in revenue was on the back of static headcount; but closer examination shows that Ashurst has been undergoing a quiet restructuring that has seen an amount of culling.

The silver circle firm is now introducing a Linklaters-style strategy to focus on complex transactional work for a core group of premium corporate and financial institutional clients in a bid to boost revenue. As part of the strategy the firm is hoping to turn at least one other existing institutional client into another Royal Bank of Scotland, the firm's top-billing client.

In financial management terms, Ashurst is highly conservative, with no borrowings and a total lockup at below 100 days. For remuneration, it utilises a 10-year lockstep system that includes two gateways through which partners can move if they achieve performance hurdles. They can also be moved back down if their performances slide.

In January 2006 Ashurst revealed plans to expand in Europe and Asia, with a target of the firm's overseas outposts to generate at least a third of its overall workload. Paris and Madrid already achieved their best-ever revenue figures in 2005-06. The firm launched in Dubai in September 2005 and ramped up in Germany and Italy in January with raids on Haarmann Hemmelrath and Allen & Overy respectively. But any gains in Germany were countered by a string of losses, including a Munich team to Latham & Watkins.

Corporate and private equity continue to generate the largest slice of revenue at 36 per cent. One of the firm's most notable mandates in 2005-06 was advising Candover, as owner of bingo and casino operator Gala, on in its £2.18bn acquisition of bookmaking chain Coral Eurobet.