Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) suffered from a slow litigation year, despite handling some of the biggest cases out there, such as Equitable Life. Turnover dropped marginally from £80m in 2005 to £79.4m this year, while average PEP was static at £380,000.

BLG benefited from the FRS5 accounting rule change, with a 4 per cent uplift in turnover and profit. This meant that the firm's final results were slightly better than the £78m originally predicted shortly after year-end. As well as the knock-on effect of the corporate boom on contentious work, BLG also suffered from the loss of a sizeable banking team to Winston & Strawn at the start of the financial year.

All of the firm's 72 equity partners are based in the UK and this number has not changed since last year. The equity partners are on a 14-year lockstep, rising from 28 to 112 points in six-point steps.

BLG also has seven partners overseas, in its Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore offices. They are not part of the firm's full equity. The Asian offices brought in £5.4m of revenue to the firm last year, or £1.08m per partner, in comparison with £74m in the UK, or £1.03m per partner.

Despite the static turnover, BLG is still an extremely profitable firm given that 65 per cent of income comes from litigation, managing a margin of 35 per cent. This is down to a rigorous programme of cost-management.

The firm is beginning to see new opportunities created by joining up its contentious and non-contentious practice areas, and in October last year won a place on healthcare provider Bupa's panel.

BLG set up the regulatory team in June last year in response to increased demand. It brought together contentious and non-contentious expertise, with partner Chris Warren-Smith leading the litigation side and insurance partner Stephen Browning overseeing the non-contentious aspect.