Pinsent Masons announces FY15/16 results

The firm achieved global turnover of £382.3m, and increased profit per equity partner to £550k. This represents 5.5% revenue growth on the previous year and cumulative revenue growth of almost a fifth over the past three years.

The Advanced Manufacturing and Technology, Financial Services and Infrastructure sectors all contributed around 20% to global turnover, while the Energy and Real Estate sectors contributed around 12% each.

John Cleland, Managing Partner at Pinsent Masons, says:

"Our vision is to be recognised as an international market leader in the global sectors in which we operate, and this latest set of results demonstrates further progress. It is particularly pleasing that we have managed to sustain growth and profitability while making unprecedented levels of investment into our business. Our partners recognise that if we are serious about becoming international market leaders we cannot stop investing. We have a good deal of momentum in the business and our focus now is on supporting clients based in the UK and elsewhere through what is likely to be a volatile and unpredictable trading period. Some time ago we assembled a multidisciplinary Brexit Advisory Team which is already engaged with clients globally to address the challenges and opportunities linked to  Brexit. The year ahead is hard to predict, however our strategic focus on industry sectors, international platform and broad practice mix means our business is exceptionally well-placed to help clients respond to what lies ahead."

The results follow a year of intense investment at Pinsent Masons. Over the course of the past 12 months the firm has:

• Launched new offices in Sydney and Melbourne focused on the global infrastructure sector. In addition to the team of five 'founding partners' the firm has added sector leaders including Peter Megens from King & Spalding, Anthony Arrow from Allens and Margaret Cole, former Head of White & Case's Middle East offices
• Launched a new energy-focused office in Dusseldorf. This comprises a four-partner team from KPMG's legal arm in addition to one partner from Hoffman Liebs Fritsch & Partner. Further, the firm 'bolted on' a market-leading capital markets practice to its Munich office.
• Launched an Oil & Gas practice in Singapore through the appointments of Ashley Wright and Steve Potter from Norton Rose Fulbright and Jones Day respectively.
• Acquired a majority stake in Cerico, the cloud-based regulatory compliance solutions business, and rolled out proprietary artificial intelligence software in diligence and matter management.
• Appointed new leadership at Vario, Pinsent Masons’ legal resourcing hub, to oversee a long term growth strategy.

The firm made 18 partner promotions, and appointed its inaugural external Board member, Pauline Egan, and first COO, Alastair Mitchell. In addition it brought in former Secretary of State Douglas Alexander as a strategic adviser in connection with the firm's responsible business agenda.

Significant panel wins over the period have included being appointed or re-appointed to act for organisations including Capita, Serco, Peel Ports, Galliford Try, RBS, Royal Life, Pearson and Redefine. The firm also won appointments to the panels of Laing O'Rourke and John Holland in Australia.

Standout mandates for the firm over the year include acting on the project financing of the Thar II power facility in Pakistan - one of the first projects to complete as part of China's 'One Belt, One Road' strategy - and advising longstanding client Redefine Properties on a €1.2bn acquisition of a Polish real estate portfolio. Recently Pinsent Masons advised Wendel, one of France's top equity houses, on the sale of leading French car rental company Parcours for €300 million. The firm is also advising the co-founders of Skype on the development of an autonomous 'drone' delivery technology in Germany, and has been appointed to act for DONG Energy on the Hornsea Project Three offshore wind farm - potentially the world's largest offshore wind farm.

The firm was ranked as the leading law firm in both the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index and The Times Top 50 Workplaces for Women.