Fieldfisher boosts revenue by 20 per cent in half-year results

Fieldfisher has become the first firm to announce its half-year results for 2017/18, revealing a 20 per cent turnover rise from £64.1m to £76.7m in a continuation of its strong run of financial performances.

The figures cover Fieldfisher’s offices in the UK, Silicon Valley, Paris, Brussels and Germany, excluding those in the Swiss verein in Amsterdam, Italy and China.

The same time next year, Fieldfisher posted a 10 per cent rise in half-year revenue from £58.4m to £64.1m.

Managing partner Michael Chissick told The Lawyer that several key areas are generating growth, including the firm’s Russia and CIS practice. Chissick said the team, made up of 25 Russian-speaking lawyers and paralegals in London, is involved heavily in arbitration cases boosting fee income.

He also pointed towards the firm’s work for in-house counsel over GDPR, with hundreds of projects currently underway for clients.

Last month Fieldfisher expanded its Condor automated documentation platform to South Africa, while this month it formed a strategic partnership with Belfast-based Donaldson Legal Consulting in a further expansion of the platform.

Condor provides services to bank clients of the firm and is starting to generate a small proportion of revenue for the firm. Chissick hinted these were “not massive numbers as yet”, but that revenue could be “quite substantial” in the coming years.

For the 2016/17 financial year, Fieldfisher saw its turnover skyrocket 34 per cent to £165m, while average profit per equity partner rose 16 per cent. The figures were aided by a string of mergers in the 2016/17 financial year. Fieldfisher opened its fifth office in seven months last February, growing its European footprint to Amsterdam.

It also opened its doors in Italy after a merger with Studio Associato Servizi Professionali Integrati (SASPI), and entered the Birmingham market after combining with 18-partner outfit Hill Hostetter. In Asia, Fieldfisher formed new associations in Beijing and Shanghai.

Over the summer, the firm became the first in the UK to roll out new technology platform LexisOne, but experienced “teething problems” causing billing delays. Chissick added these problems have now been resolved.

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