Fieldfisher has reported an 11% rise in firm-wide revenue to £370m from £330m, marking ten years of consecutive revenue growth for the firm. However, profit per equity partner (PEP) fell 11% to £930,000 from £1.05m in the previous financial year.
Broken down geographically, the firm recorded a 9% rise in revenue at its London office, a 12% rise in revenue at its Birmingham office and a 13% rise in revenue at its Manchester office. In Europe, the firm recorded a 22% rise at its German office, a 20% rise at its Belgium office, a 9% rise at its Ireland office, and an 8% rise at its French office.
In terms of practice areas, IP enjoyed the largest revenue increase of 18%. Current cases for the group include Getty Images v Stability AI, a precedent setting piece of copyright litigation, and the trade mark case Sky v Skykick. Its disputes practice achieved a 17% increase in revenue and its employment team achieved a 15% revenue increase. The firm’s real estate group and its corporate group had more modest years, with a 10% and a 9% increase in revenue growth respectively.
Commenting on the results, managing partner Rob Shooter (pictured) said: ‘This has been a remarkable year in many respects. Once again, we have achieved double-digit revenue growth, pushing our integrated firm turnover to over £300m for the first time in our history. We have launched the firm’s new strategy and continued to implement our European growth agenda, opening an office in Vienna, a strong European commercial centre in a region strategically important to us and our clients.’
In the statement, while the firm did not address the decline in profit directly, Shooter noted: ‘We have also invested significantly in areas of the firm that were previously under-invested, stretching across our systems, processes, and resources. These are big developments and investments, designed to make our firm more competitive, so that we can take better advantage of emerging business opportunities, and be more robust in response to challenging market conditions.’
He added: ‘We implemented our current strategy last year and this will run until 2025. It is based on three “peaks” of collaboration, building Europe’s leading law firm and ESG. We think this has served us well so far and are confident we are on the right course for the future.’
Over the last year, 10 lateral hires have joined Fieldfisher globally. In London this includes the arrival of disputes partners Ania Farren and Priyanka Kapoor, corporate partner Melanie Talbot, structured finance partner Peter Knust, planning partner Christopher Stanwell, and regulatory partner Robert Jappie. Shooter added that key areas for headcount growth over the next financial year are Vienna and Birmingham.
Its Vienna launch was part of the European expansion element of the firm’s 2022-2025 strategy and saw 18 new colleagues join the new office, including five partners. The firm confirmed that it is looking to further its European expansion through a mixture of growing its existing offices and new office openings.