Pre-tax profits at Linklaters rose 7% in 2015/16 on the back of strong growth across a number of its practice areas including mergers and acquisitions, the magic circle firm announced today.

The rise pushed pre-tax profits to £611.9m in the year ending 30 April, compared with £573m the year before. Meanwhile revenues rose 3.4% to £1.31bn.

Gideon Moore, managing partner, said that the strong performance was driven by ‘the efforts of our people, our deep client relationships and our sector focus’.

He added: 'There has been strong demand across all our practice and sector groups over the past 12 months. In particular we have seen strong growth and activity among our M&A, projects, dispute resolution and arbitration, [telecommunications, media, technology] & IP and [financial regulation] teams.

'From a sector perspective we’ve seen strong activity in consumer, energy & utilities and private equity.’

He said the firm would continue to prioritise the efficient delivery of legal services next year.

Moore said: ‘Our approach to date has been making a real difference, with investment in knowledge and cutting-edge technology, running matters cost-effectively through matter mapping and project management and providing a wide range of lower-cost options to complement our offering.’