International firm Simmons & Simmons’ profit per equity partner has gone above £1m for the first time, following an 8% increase in profits.

PEP rose 2% to £1,002,000 in the year to 30 April 2022 and profit reached £185m, while revenue was up to £465m, a 6% increase on last year’s results.

Simmons & Simmons said its financial performance was driven by ‘an ambitious investment and hiring strategy’, which saw the firm make 25 lateral hires across 10 offices in eight countries.

It also promoted 13 of its lawyers to partner in the last year, while increasing pay and bonuses ‘to lessen the impact of the cost of living increases on those most affected’. The firm increased newly-qualified salaries in London from £88,000 to £100,000 in December.

Managing partner Jeremy Hoyland said the results ‘reflect the success of the ambitious growth strategy that Simmons has embarked on, demonstrated this year by strategically significant expansion across Europe – particularly in Germany – and of course our plans for a US office’.

‘Despite another year marred by significant global turmoil and humanitarian suffering, I am proud that as a firm we have been able to come together and support important causes both at home and abroad through our charitable foundation and our pro bono work,’ he said.

Hoyland also said the firm would continue to invest in its alternative legal services business Solutions, which ‘provides us an essential platform to innovate in response to evolving client demands’.

‘The firm is well positioned to meet the challenges and uncertainties that lay ahead of us,’ he added.