Clyde & Co‘s highest-paid LLP member received £1.4m during the last financial year, while its merger with Simpson & Marwick brought in an additional £7m in profit in 2015/16.
The firm’s latest LLP accounts show that the firm posted an impressive 13% increase in turnover during the last financial year, up to £447.3m from £395m, while profit per equity partner (PEP) climbed to £665,000 from £600,000.
Remuneration for the highest paid member dropped by 24% year-on-year from £1.8m to £1.4m but this figure in the LLP accounts does not necessarily equate to the highest paid equity partner and can relate to ‘golden handshakes’ to paid to retiring members.
Turnover attributed to the firm’s Scottish business, acquired through its merger with 45-partner Simpson & Marwick in October 2015, was £18m. The Scottish acquisition saw Clyde & Co gain lawyers from Simpson & Marwick’s five Scottish offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and East Lothian plus three English offices Newcastle, London and Leeds.
Staff costs increased by 15% to £201m, with the overall number of staff also increasing by 14% to 2,857. The number of members increased by 11% to 262.
The firm took on more borrowings, which increased from £53.5m to £62m. While the hefty debt has drawn some criticism from partners and former partners, chief executive Peter Hasson said the loans are used for working capital and to fund expansion, ‘all of which, if you look at our track record, have been turned into profitable business activity’.
Hasson also told Legal Business that during the firm’s peak borrowing time in January, 50% of the firm’s needs would be paid from partners’ capital and 50% would be matched by borrowing.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
For more on management changes and the challenges ahead for Clyde & Co, read ‘Sideways – a lateral move in leadership and big US ambitions for Clyde & Co’