LB100 firm Freeths has continued the trend of strong financial performances for law firms at the national level, posting double-digit revenue growth for the 2014/15 financial year and surpassing £50m in turnover.
The law firm’s turnover was up 12% on last year to £55.8m, helped by the continued integration of Oxford-based Henmans which the firm merged with in 2013 and provided over 15% of total revenues. The firm, which rebranded in 2014 from Freeth Cartwright, said it was looking at more mergers as it wanted to grow its current 11-strong national office network and generate £100m in turnover by 2020.
The current growth rate has seen the firm boost headcount by nearly 10% with 50 new staff added over the past year bringing the total Freeths workforce to 679 with Leeds, Sheffield and London growing particularly strongly. Given the strong growth results, staff at the firm have been rewarded for their performance with a 5% of salary bonus payment.
Chief executive Peter Smith said: ‘It’s an excellent result, ahead of our target, and the fruit of a lot of hard work to identify strategic opportunities, focus on business efficiency and deliver great customer service. Our office network around the country means we know our local markets, while our size and the expertise of our teams in various sectors means we can pull together big national deals.’
Standout work includes an £84m property deal involving the acquisition of more than 50 business centres across the UK by Bridges Ventures. The firm advised on all commercial and property aspects of the deal, involving more than 2000 business tenants, with a team from Nottingham, London, Manchester, Oxford and Leicester.
michael.west@legalease.co.uk