DAC Beachcroft today announced a 2% increase in revenue to £280m to mark its eighth successive year of growth, though the firm’s pre-tax profits dropped by 7%.

The firm posted £62m in profit before tax in the year ending 30 April 2022, down from the £67m recorded last year, while average profit per member also dropped from around £700,000 to £652,000.

Managing Partner David Pollitt said: ‘Our focus this last year has been on investing in the future of our business. During FY21 we were continuing to manage the highly unusual circumstances thrown up by the Covid-19 pandemic. Like many firms, we posted very strong numbers in FY21 and we took the strategic decision to reinvest some of this back into the business in FY22 in a number of different areas.’

Dacbeachcroft

DAC Beachcroft posted £62m in profit before tax in the year ending 30 April 2022

Meanwhile, international firm Dentons today announced a 14% increase in revenue in the UK, Ireland and Middle East (UKIME) last year with revenue of £260.4m in the year ending 30 April 2022 across the region. The Gazette understands that profit per equity partner (PEP) is just below £1m.

Dentons said that ‘significant tranches’ of the £31.3m revenue uplift were delivered by its Dublin office ‘materially outperforming expectations in its first full year of trading’ and £35m of ‘inbound work from outside the UKIME region’.

Paul Jarvis, CEO for the UKIME region, said: ‘Our UK corporate practice had an exceptional year, posting over a 20% increase in revenues fuelled by domestic and cross-border M&A activity. The volume and speed of deals was only part of the story. The bigger picture for us is the quality of revenues we’re now consistently bringing in from premium work across the firm as we move up the value chain for our clients.’

Elsewhere, Stephenson Harwood saw revenue stand still as it today said it is chalking £3m off its previously-stated figures for 2020/21. The international firm said revenue for the year ending 30 April 2022 was £206m, the same as the previous financial year following ‘the settlement of a claim regarding unpaid fees, which was reached between announcing and closing our accounts’, while PEP remained at £685,000.

Chief executive Eifion Morris said: ‘While the headlines will focus on the numbers, the reality is the last two-and-a-half years have been a period of considerable change for the firm.’

He added that Stephenson Harwood has ‘focused on performance, re-organised the business, managed a transition in the partnership and developed and launched a bold new global strategy’, which began in May this year.

‘It’s been a time of incredible change,’ Morris said. ‘We’ve laid the foundations for the future success of the business, while maintaining solid revenue and PEP figures. We always expected it would take a few years for us to fully see the benefits of the changes we’ve made and we’re really energised about what the coming years will bring.’