The European offices at Paul Hastings had a record year in 2015, with profit increasing by 50% from £20.2m to £30.2m. The firm also posted a 16% increase in revenue from £82.5m to £96m, according to filings at Companies House for the year ending 31 January 2016.
The revenue growth is consistent with the increase in headcount from 120 lawyers in 2015 to 131 on 31 January 2016, including the addition of three partners taking the total number of partners to 32.
Paul Hastings’ European LLP includes offices in London, Paris, Brussels, Milan and Frankfurt. While the London office raked in 58.1% of the overall LLP turnover, the firm would not disclose further revenues by location.
Paul Hastings London office chair Ronan O’Sullivan said: ‘We had another record year in London and a very successful 2015 throughout Europe, and continue to make strategic progress with our clients and practices globally and across Europe.’
As reported back in March, Paul Hastings resisted the slowdown in the US legal market by posting record profits globally, with PEP crossing the $2.5m barrier and revenue rising 6% from $1bn in 2014 to $1.06bn last year.
While the US firm announced the hire of Ashurst heavyweight Nigel Ward in September, two weeks later the finance partner confirmed he would stick with the firm.
However Paul Hastings has strengthened its bench over the past 18 months with the hires of Paul Severs from BLP and Duncan Woollard from King & Wood Mallesons. It also hired restructuring veteran David Ereira from Linklaters.
georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk
For more on US firms in London see: ‘Global London overview: The eagle has landed’