Top ten not immune from financial setbacks as profits fall
Profits per partner fell by an average of 21% in the top ten law firms over the last year, and profits for the top 100 firms were down 30%.
However, partners at the top ten made almost double the profits of partners at the next 15 firms in size (£872,000 compared with £444,000), according to this year’s PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP survey of financial performance.
Overseas revenues have grown in importance for the larger firms, aided by currency movements. Three-quarters of the top ten firms now earn more than 40% of all fees from international operations—although profitability has dropped in the Middle East, central and eastern Europe and the Far East.
Outsourcing is a growing trend, and there is interest in extending this to include accounting, HR and procurement as well as the more usual areas of payroll, IT and facilities management.
Alistair Rose, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, says: “This year has seen the greatest turmoil in the law firm sector since our survey began in 1991.
“It was quite clear when our last survey was published that
