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Freshfields broke through the £2bn revenue mark for the first time last year, as investments in the US and a pick-up in dealmaking helped line the “magic circle” law firm’s coffers.
The London-based firm reported an 18 per cent increase in revenues to £2.1bn for the year ending April 2024, according to accounts filed with Companies House on Friday. The filing comes after the firm stopped publishing financial results in the summer.
Key areas of growth for Freshfields included the US, where revenues increased from £311mn to £391mn, and Europe, where revenues rose 20 per cent to just under £1.6bn, thanks in part to a resurgence of dealmaking in the region.
Freshfields has undergone a rebrand over the past year, dropping the Bruckhaus and Deringer names linked to its German-Austrian merger in 2000, as the firm has sought to reposition itself among the so-called global elite, to compete with US law firms investing heavily in London.
The firm’s global managing partner Rick van Aerssen said in July 2023 that Freshfields would no longer publish its results for the media alongside its peers in the summer, stating that its progress should be “based on the quality of business we’ve built and the client mandates we’re winning”.
Freshfields has made a big play to grow its footprint in the US in recent years, poaching high-profile partners from firms such as Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Skadden; and Davis Polk, and offering bigger pay packages in an effort to compete with Wall Street’s elite outfits.
The UK’s top firms have all been aiming to push further into the world’s most profitable legal market, with Freshfields and Linklaters opting to expand through key hires, and legacy Allen & Overy merging with New York’s Shearman & Sterling last year. Clifford Chance has also opted to expand via recruitment in recent years, following a fraught US merger more than two decades ago that led to clashes over culture.
Linklaters and Clifford Chance said US revenues had grown by more than 20 per cent when they published their financial results in July last year. The duo, along with legacy A&O, also reported revenues of more than £2bn last year on the back of a pick-up in mergers and acquisitions. Equity partners at the three firms took home about £2mn on average.
Freshfields’ profit for the year to be divided between its partners fell to £665mn from £726mn, according to the accounts.
The firm did not disclose the average profit per equity partner for the year. Freshfields declined to comment.
