Magic Circle law firm Clifford Chance posted flat revenues and a 6% fall in partnership profit to £404 million in the year to May — but top partners still took home £1 million each.
The firm advised and acted on cases including Glencore’s acquisition of rival Xstrata, the Qatari bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a string of Libor-related cases and the Autonomy dispute during the 12 months. But it still saw revenues flat at £1.3 million. Profit per equity partner was £1 million — down 9% on the previous financial year.
Clifford Chance’s top executives may be enviously looking at their City rivals’ pay deals: Linklaters last week said profit per equity partner was more than £1.3 million in the financial year, and Freshfields partners took home an extra £82,000 each to take their pay to £1.4 million.
Clifford Chance managing partner David Childs described the results as “solid”, adding: “Given the difficult operating environment for many of our clients and the depressed transactional markets, we are pleased to have maintained revenues last year. We are living through an extended period of choppy conditions in global markets.”
Childs added that the busiest departments were global litigation and dispute resolution while the banking division “continued to flourish”.
“This year has started well, with noticeable signs of an upturn in transactional volumes,” he said. “While we may not yet be seeing a large number of high-value deals, there is a sense of increased market confidence.”
