Taylor Wessing has become the latest LB100 firm to post its limited liability partnership accounts via Companies House, which show its UK fee income increased by 4% to £102m. This compares to total revenues of international business reported as £228m for the 2012/13 financial year.
UK members’ profit for the financial year fell slightly to £29.4m from £30.3m, while operating profit also dropped marginally at £38.2m compared to £38.9m in 2011/12.
Staff costs of the UK LLP increased by 9% from £37.6m to £41.1m last year, which follows alongside an increase in fee-earners from 251 to 260.
The highest paid member took home £809,532 – a 6% drop compared to 2011/12, when that figure stood at £860,551.
UK managing partner Tim Eyles said: ‘We try to combine being ambitious with efficiency in our financial management; remaining bank debt free, for example, which should put us in an advantageous position as we continue to pursue our growth strategy.’
In November, the Anglo-German firm joined a band of leading City firms to have announced a double-digit increase in revenue for the 2013/14 half year (H1), unveiling a 10% increase in its UK turnover.
The 960-lawyer firm has embarked on a period of strategic expansion, growing its partnership by 15% to 365 in the last financial year, after making 15 lateral hires and 16 promotions globally and adding offices throughout Europe and Asia, including Bratislava, Brno, Budapest, Kiev, Klagenfurt, Prague, Singapore, Vienna and Warsaw.
The firm credited this extensive investment, including international expansion and a series of lateral hires for the uptick in its performance, which internationally saw its H1 revenues increase by 9%.
These results follow transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells, which yesterday (29 January) unveiled a 5.4% increase in profit before tax from £197m to £208m and an enviable lack of debt on comparison to some recent filings by its competitors.
Sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk