CMS Cameron McKenna has revealed a 26% rise in group turnover to £259.2m from £206.1m, boosted by the acquisition of Scottish firm Dundas & Wilson in 2014 which posted turnover of £47m.
The firm’s LLP accounts revealed the turnover bump, alongside a 32% jump in pre-tax profit to £77.9m from £59.3m for the year to 30 April 2015.
The LLP covers a spread of offices including London, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Warsaw, Prague, Sofia, Beijing and Rio de Janeiro. Profit available for discretionary division among members increased by 34% to £61.5m from £45.7m. The number of fee earners rose to 1,087 from 804 the previous year and support staff increased to 515 from 424. Salaries leapt from £47m to £66m.
The highest remuneration of a member for the year was £788,000, a fall on last year’s figure of nearly £1.3m which included a retirement provision of £593,000.
The firm incurred a charge of £2.64m on the takeover of Scottish firm Dundas & Wilson which the accounts said was for reorganisation, restructuring and integrating the acquisition during the year. The takeover was entered into on 1 May 2014.
The CMS group last summer unveiled double digit growth in revenue for the financial year ending 31 December 2014 with turnover up 11% to €934.5m (£753.3m), constituting a marked turnaround from revenues the year before, which showed a marginal increase of 1% to €842.1m from €837.7m for the year ending December 2013.
Last week the firm announced the appointment of its new UK chief Stephen Millar following a contested election to succeed longstanding managing partner Duncan Weston.
Set to take effect in May, Weston will take on the role of executive partner for global development, while Millar will be tasked with ‘refreshing’ firm strategy alongside senior partner Penelope Warne as Weston’s current three-year plan comes to an end.
Yesterday several firms posted their LLPs including Norton Rose Fulbright, Pinsent Masons and Dentons.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
