Disputes heavyweight Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has continued its impressive growth in the City, with revenue at the firm’s London office increasing 20% to £100.6m.
The US-bred firm also saw profits rise 11% to £67.2m, putting the office’s profit margin at 66.7%. The results cement Quinn’s place as ‘unquestionably the market leader in litigation-only practices in London,’ according to senior partner of the London office Richard East.
The revenue increase is an improvement on the firm’s impressive showing last year, when turnover increased 16% to £83.6m. However, profit growth was marginally ahead for 2018, growing 13% to £59.3m. The firm counts 19 partners in its London office and had 69 associates/of counsel at the end of 2019, up from 54 at the beginning of the year.
‘This has been another year of fantastic growth in London revenues with all areas of our practice contributing to our success,’ said Quinn co-managing partner Alex Gerbi. ‘We remain very ambitious and believe that we can continue to grow our market share and further entrench our position as the ‘go-to’ disputes firm.’’
The firm’s City performance has been driven by a number of standout disputes over the last year, including high-profile group action claims such as the Merricks v Mastercard dispute and the truck cartel investigation.
Meanwhile, fellow US outfit King & Spalding has also produced strong financial performance in the City. The firm increased London revenue 15% to $55.7m, an improvement on last year’s growth of 12% in its UK business. Firmwide revenues also saw growth, up 6.1% to $1.34bn, while profit per equity partner was up 5.4% to $3m. The global growth rate is down on last year, when the firm upped revenue 9%.
So far in 2020 US firms have disclosed robust financial performances for 2019. Morrison & Foerster kicked off the reporting season last month, when the firm revealed a 25% uptick in City revenue and a 10% revenue rise globally.
