Revenue at Taylor Wessing grew 13% to hit £420.6m in the year to 30 April 2022 against a 27% rise in UK profit per equity partner (PEP), making it the latest UK firm to post a bumper crop of results as financial reporting season gets underway. 

Fee income for the firm’s UK business shot up by 25% to £219m while profits soared by 32% from £71m last year to £93m. The profit figures mark a solid return to form following the 8% dip the firm recorded in 2020 to £58m, which at the time it chalked up to investment in technology, lateral hires and its Liverpool office. 

“Our initial investments played through in the final year of our three-year strategy, which is pleasing,” said Taylor Wessing managing partner Shane Gleghorn. “Our core sector strengths of technology and life sciences and healthcare underpinned the results, and we saw significant growth in the real estate and private wealth sectors.”

The firm has also retained a profit share scheme it introduced last year, handing out a 5% profit share based on salaries to staff across the firm on top of annual performance bonuses of up to 30%.

The firm said it had increased the number of transactions valued at more than £100m it had advised on over the past financial year. It advised on more than 200 deals in the tech sector and more than 50 in the life sciences and healthcare spaces.

“Trademarks and copyright, and patent litigation and IP advisory have also been very strong contributors,” Gleghorn said. “That sector approach has been coupled with investment into, and focus upon, our client relationships, which has significantly grown profitable revenue.”

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Growth in the firm’s IP practice has been particularly notable – it took on more than 150 new IP clients in the last 12 months and has been involved in transactions on behalf of major clients like entertainment copyright manager The Roald Dahl Story Company and pharmaceutical giant Viatris. 

In terms of lateral hires, the firm nabbed some top talent across a number of its offices, including six lateral partner hires in the UK and Ireland. Among them were Adam Griffiths and Deidre MacCarthy, who joined from ReganWall and Maples Group respectively to spearhead the firm’s office in Dublin, which launched in September.

Elsewhere, it secured a ten-lawyer team from Deloitte Legal in Poland and hired Abdullah Mutawi from Middle East firm Al Tamimi & Company to lead its MENA corporate operations from Dubai. 

Taylor Wessing’s financial performance places it in between UK rivals Pinsent Masons and Osborne Clarke, which this month reported revenue hikes of 6% to £531m and 19% to €407m respectively. Pinsent Masons’ PEP grew by 16% to hit £739k while Osborne Clarke’s UK PEP rose by 11% to £796k.