Top-20 UK firm Simmons & Simmons has seen revenue rise 8% for the first six months of the 2014-15 financial year with income, buoyed by the recovery in bank lending for M&A and financial regulatory work, increasing from £130m to £140m.
The strongest performance came in the UK, with managing partner Jeremy Hoyland (pictured) telling Legal Business that the firm is ‘outperforming the market’. Simmons & Simmons’ aggressive international expansion went up another level yesterday with the launch of a five-lawyer office in Luxemburg coming on the back of openings in Beijing and a second office in Saudi Arabia.
Hoyland added: ‘It’s been less about new clients but doing more for the large clients. We’ve seen an increased number of transactions for the banks in the last six months and I’m keen to get all of the income growth to filter into the profits and holding costs as flat as we can.’
The rise in half year revenue repeats last year’s performance for the period which saw income rise from £121m to £130m. That heralded Simmons & Simmons’ return to growth in 2013/14 with the firm seeing a 7% rise in revenue to £268.6m for the 12 months to 30 April 2014 and an increase in PEP of 5% to £550,000.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk