Equity partners at the legacy magic circle firms are earning £1m a year more than they were a decade ago as the City legal sector’s ‘long boom’ continues.

As the annual results season draws to a close, data also shows that double-digit percentage profit rises are once again the norm across the Square Mile.

In the magic circle, average profit per equity partner came in about £1m higher in 2025/26 than 2015/16 at three firms – Linklaters, Clifford Chance and A&O Shearman (formerly Allen & Overy). Figures are unavailable for other members of the quintet.

Freshfields ceased to participate in the reporting round three years ago, declaring then that ‘the real sign of the firm’s progress [is] based on the quality of business we’ve built’. Information on the firm’s trading is limited to Companies House filings months after the accounting year-end. Slaughter and May remains a traditional partnership and does not publish any financial results.

The City sector’s relative affluence has once again raised the spectre of a levy or ‘windfall tax’ – seriously considered but dropped in 2015/16 by then lord chancellor Michael Gove.