Dentons‘ UK, Middle East and Africa business has seen turnover increase 7% to £169m for the financial year ending 2015/16, up from £157m the previous year, according to the firm’s LLP accounts.
The firm saw operating profits up from £42.2m to £47.2m, while profits available for distribution among members was up to £44.7m from £36.6m the year before.
The global firm’s UK partnership has seen headcount growth across its business, with the average number of members up from 118 to 124 while total headcount increased from 858 to 899.
The top earning partner in the Dentons UK, Middle East and Africa business was rewarded with £1.3m in the 2015/16 financial year, up from £800,0000 the year before, however such increases in salary can sometimes be attributed to ‘golden handshakes’ for retirements. Remuneration for key management at the firm was up to £4.3m for 2015/16 from £3.8m.
The firm’s UKMEA business covers its operations in London, Milton Keynes and Watford in the UK as well as offices in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Doha, Muscat, Riyadh and Tashkent. The Watford office was recently added to Dentons’ UK presence with the hire of a 75-strong team from banking litigation outfit Matthew Arnold & Baldwin.
The UK-based business’s financial performance sees the partnership return to its revenue peak from around the time of the banking crisis as legacy Denton Wilde Sapte. UKMEA revenues later dipped to around £143m in 2013.
Now in its global incarnation, Dentons has seen rapid growth over the last two years as a results of its merger with Chinese practice Dacheng in 2015. Last year the firm’s total turnover topped $2.1bn, and it has since seen further expansion into Australia and Central America in 2016.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk
Read more in: ‘The pitch – A new kind of global law firm emerges but can Dentons live up to the hype?’