Two of this year’s best-performing mid-pack firms in the Legal Business 100 (LB100), Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) and Fieldfisher, have continued their run of impressive form with their half-year 2017/18 results.
After quietly establishing itself as one of the strongest firms in the last financial year, WFW recorded a 13% jump in its 2017/18 half-year revenues. Turnover for the first six months of the financial year to 31 October grew to £76.1m, up from £67.6m the previous year. WFW co-managing partner Chris Lowe argued that the strong result was ‘clear evidence of the success of our industry sector-focused model despite a challenging macro-economic environment’.
Co-managing partner Lothar Wegener added: ‘The considerable investment the firm has made into our business services over the past few years, alongside our strategy of targeted lateral hiring of high-calibre lawyers in our specialist sectors of transport, energy and real estate, continue to pay off.’
However, WFW was unable to match the half-year performance of fellow mid-tier pacesetter, Fieldfisher, which announced a 20% rise in H1 turnover from £64.1m to £76.8m.
Fieldfisher excelled in its full-year financial performance for 2016/17, becoming the best-performing firm for revenue growth year on year in the LB100, with turnover up 36% to £165m. The figure excludes turnover from all the Swiss Verein members and covers Fieldfisher’s offices in the UK, Silicon Valley, Paris, Brussels and Germany. This represents a significant uptick in the top line from the two previous years: in 2016/17, revenue was up 10% at the H1 stage, while the firm posted an 8% rise the previous year.
The strong performance underlines the firm’s successful expansion in the past year, which saw new outposts established in China, Italy, the Netherlands and Birmingham. Managing partner Michael Chissick said: ‘The office openings were key for us. Luckily, they’ve all been successful. Every office last year had its highest-ever turnover and we will probably do the same this year.’
Elsewhere, top-ten LB100 firm CMS UK claimed profits have grown 25% in the six months since its three-way merger with Nabarro and Olswang. CMS said H1 turnover for its UK business, at £253m, was more than 50% of its full-year budget. However, the firm did not provide an actual figure for net profit, save to comment it was up 25% on the figure last year. This renders a like-for-like comparison meaningless, as it includes combined profit with legacy firms Nabarro and Olswang.
Meanwhile DWF’s unrelenting push internationally saw turnover grow 23% at the H1 2017/18 stage and net profit increasing by ‘circa 33%’. Turnover for H1 2017/18 was £113.5m in a period marked by a spate of office openings in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
Another multi-site, North West-based firm, Weightmans, announced record half-year revenue of £44m, up 7% on the previous year.
For analysis of the 2016/17 success of Fieldfisher and WFW, see ‘Reversal of fortunes’.