Ince & Co’s revenue has grown 16% to £88.5m this year, signalling recovery from a three-year decline, in what Ince’s international senior partner Jan Heuvels described as a ‘good year of investment and growth.’
Heuvels (pictured) told Legal Business that, ‘if you strip out the FX effect, as we do have significant non-sterling earnings, we still have a significant 10% increase in real terms.’
On a five-year track, revenues at the insurance and shipping firm have decreased by 3% from £91.6m in 2011/2012, however.
Compared to last year’s revenues of £76.2m, the 2016/17 result represented a marked year of change.
Part of this was physical growth, with the firm creating two new strategic offices. Marseille opened its doors in January 2016 to serve the firm’s growth in the shipping market, while in October that year, the firm launched in Cologne with the hire of two insurance partners.
The firm also bulked up its Singapore venture, Ince Law Alliance. In October, Ince appointed Allen & Gledhill associate Felicia Tan as director, which the firm said is the equivalent of a partner in Singapore. This followed the exits of Singapore managing partner Richard Lovell and Incisive Law managing director Mohan Subbaraman to Reed Smith, and energy head Martin David to Baker McKenzie.
Heuvels also highlighted 12 new partners Ince recruited over the last year in its core sectors, including three new partners in London, Beijing and Shanghai.
Ince continues to modernise, Heuvels said: ‘Physically, our investments underpin the fact that we work in an agile way. More office moves and upgrades are planned in Asia, and Shanghai is next.’
However, Ince has also substantially developed its remuneration models: ‘The real benefit of some of the changes we have made to our equity model, where over a third of profits of the firm are in the performance pot now, is that it will no doubt lead to a stretching of our equity between the bottom and top end,’ he added.
Earlier this month, Legal Business revealed that Ince is offering its lawyers the option to choose a different career path from the traditional partner track, as it also revamps its associate pay structure.
Lawyers at Ince will now progress up a four-step career programme applicable to trainees, associates, senior associates and managing associates. Lawyers who reach the level of managing associate will also be given the option of taking up the new role of legal director, instead of moving up to partner.
