A model of consistency in the Legal Business 100, 2018/19 was Clyde & Co’s 21st consecutive year of growth – albeit with a merger or two thrown in. This time around it grew 11%, adding £59.7m to its top line to reach £611m.
In just three years, the firm has grown by 36%, or £160m in total. ‘If you went back eight years, we were around £250m turnover. We are now a £600m+ business,’ says senior partner Simon Konsta.
This rapid top-line growth has largely been fuelled by acquisitions and foreign expansion: Clydes has opened offices in Chicago, Washington DC, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Muscat and Bristol in the last two years. In 2019 the firm joined the growing list of firms setting up business in Dublin to bolster its Irish law insurance practice and last year it opened in Hamburg. The year-on-year growth in lawyer headcount, at 10%, is roughly in keeping with its growth in revenue.
That is not to say that Clydes’ operation is not profitable: PEP was up 5% year-on-year to £690,000 and up 15% on a five-year basis. While certainly not matching the weed-like revenue growth, it means that margin at the insurance-driven firm compares reasonably favourably with broad peer group firms in the City – Bird & Bird, Taylor Wessing, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Stephenson Harwood.
A significant leadership change will occur for the firm in 2020 with both senior partner Simon Konsta and chief executive Peter Hasson stepping down. Konsta, who joined the firm in 2011, became global head of insurance in 2013 and was made senior partner in 2016. He will be replaced as senior partner by the current arbitration co-chair, Peter Hirst.
‘We have built a £600m+ business with offices from America to continental Europe through to Asia, the Middle East and Africa,’ says Konsta. ‘There is so much more to be done to unlock the value that is within that infrastructure. We sit here in 2019 as the world’s leading insurance law firm with world-class activity in a number of other sectors. It is a great story and it is fantastic to be an influential part of that journey and I remain as enthusiastic and energetic about Clyde as I have ever been. But my thought process over the last few months has been: as senior partner I have done my bit.’
The highly-rated Hasson steps down from his role as chief executive after serving 22 years at the firm. Hasson joined Clydes from accountancy firm RSM in 1997 as chief financial officer before becoming its first chief executive in 2006. During his 13-year leadership, Hasson presided over what he described as the greatest merger in the UK – the 2011 tie-up of Clydes with Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, which created 270 partners and more than 1,250 lawyers.
How has the year been for you?
Peter Hasson: Last year was another very solid year and was a landmark one for us as, for the first time, over half our revenue was generated outside of the UK. The US is now our second-biggest region and it performed very well thanks to a combination of strong organic growth and a full year’s contribution from the 80-strong team that joined us from Sedgwick in 2018. In terms of sectors, our insurance, construction and international arbitration groups have done well and we were successful for our clients in a number of very large and high-profile energy and professional disputes that culminated this year.
Are you comfortable with where the firm is positioned?
Hasson: We feel we’ve been consistently successful because we have a model that works and that enables partners to succeed across the world and our core sectors. We’re a well-hedged and resilient business thanks to our geographical spread and sector focus, which means we can ride out cyclical pressures. For example, the Middle East is challenging now but it won’t always be the case. Likewise, some of our sectors have difficult periods while others are stronger. We’re in no way complacent and growth is never easily achieved, but we have strong foundations.
What goals are you setting yourself?
Hasson: We’re focused on growing new, profitable revenue streams within our existing business, which means ensuring we understand and respond to clients’ changing requirements and invest in innovative new products and services. At the same time, there is a continuous focus on improving operational efficiency through, for example, shared services, case management, regionalisation, managing our property portfolio and flexible working. As with any firm that takes on large numbers of new people, we’re still focused on integration. Alongside that, we’ll continue to hire individuals and teams when the right people are available and in line with our sector and regional strategies.