Pinsent Masons has posted a 16% increase in its profit per equity partner (PEP) for the 2022 financial year, with revenue growing by 6% to £531.1m. 

The hike in PEP to £739,000 follows on from last year’s 16% increase, which in turn marked a rebound from the previous year when PEP fell by 12% to £546,000.

Revenue, meanwhile, rose to £531.1m from £503.3m, the tenth successive year the top 20 UK firm has increased turnover.

The results are the third set posted by Pinsent Masons since it revamped its reporting metrics two years ago to cover a wider range of criteria for measuring success to better reflect the firm’s values beyond PEP. The firm measures and assesses its performance against four core metrics – client focus, people and development opportunities, ESG and commercial results, which includes revenue and PEP. 

Richard Foley, senior partner at Pinsent Masons, said: “Purposeful and profitable growth are a consequence of getting everything else right. We’ve made great strides over recent years and are delighted to see others in our industry do the same. It’s a reassuring signal of the direction of travel within the legal sector and Pinsent Masons has no intention of slowing the pace.”

In relation to client focus, Pinsents said it had launched 11 new client solutions and products and supported more than 100 clients with their responsible business and D&I strategies. The firm also embedded professional services specialists in each of its practice groups via the rollout of its advanced delivery teams, which it said generated seven figure revenues by combining those professionals, process and technology to provide better solutions. 

Looking to people and development opportunity, the firm said that over the past three years it had achieved the target of 45% of its legal director and partner promotion candidates being women and that membership of its D&I network groups reached more than 1,200 following the launch of new groups such as the Neurodiversity Network. Nearly one in five (18%) the firm’s UK trainee 2022 intake now identify as Black, Asian or other minority ethnic following the launch of its race and ethnicity 2025 targets.

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For its ESG metric, Pinsents said it had advised on five large-scale corporate power purchase agreement projects to support more clients on renewable energy structures. It also pointed to being one of the first law firms to have its net-zero target verified to ensure it meets its goal of abating 90% of its 2019 baseline emissions by 2040. 

Finally, on top of revenue and PEP, Pinsents’ commercial results include a 40.5% rise in revenue generated by professional services offerings via Pinsent Masons Vario. The firm also invested heavily in its international partnership, with 75% of all lateral partner hires based outside of the UK. 

Earlier this month the firm announced it was set to launch a financial services-focused office in Luxembourg after hiring seven partners and 16 other lawyers from local firm Wildgen, which has subsequently disbanded. 

The firm has also added to its offering in Johannesburg, South Africa, hiring corporate crime and forensic investigation partner Edward James from local firm ENSafrica in January and later joining forces with local boutique Gunn Attorneys to launch a property practice and improve its ESG offering in the city. 

Fellow UK firm Osborne Clarke reported its financial results last month, with firm-wide revenue jumping 19% from the previous financial year to hit €407m against an 11% rise in UK profit per equity partner (PEP) to £796k. 

Also last month Kennedys reported its global turnover in the 12 months to the end of April rose 8% to hit £286m. The firm does not disclose PEP, though senior partner, Nick Thomas, told Law.com that profit figures would be down compared to last year's as a result of it spending more on travel and marketing after a period of saving brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Read the Global Legal Post UK law firm financial results tracker