Both profits and revenue increased for Withers’ UK LLP in the 2011/12 financial year.
In the 2011/12 financial year Withers’ UK LLP saw its turnover increase by 6 per cent from £75.7m to £80.5m. The accounts were only for the firm’s UK and Swiss offices.
Net profits rose from £19m to £20.4m, an increase of 7 per cent, with a slight rise in profit margin from 25 per cent in 2010/11 to 25.3 per cent last year. However, due to £1.86m in actuarial losses in 2011/12 and £129,000 in gains in the previous year, the total recognised gains for the period dropped from £19.1m to £18.6m.
Withers’ staff costs rose by £3.8m in 2011/12 after the number of lawyers and support staff rose from 405 in 2010/11 to 443 last year. The firm had 76 LLP members in the last financial year, down by one from the previous year.
The highest-paid member in 2011/12 received £526,630, a drop of just under 3 per cent from £541,418 received by the highest-paid member in 2010/11.
The firm’s overdrafts and bank loans due within one year rose from £15.7m in 2010/11 to £18.1m in 2011/12. Coupled with increases in trade creditors, tax and social security creditors and accruals and deferred income, creditors’ amounts due within a year for the LLP rose by £4m and for the group by £3.7m.
However, an £800,000 decrease in bank loans and a £150,000 drop in accruals due after one year helped the amount due to long-term creditors drop by almost £1m.
Last week it emerged that Withers was in merger talks with Speechly Bircham, a move that would push the combined firm into the top 25 UK firms.
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