With the passing of the end of the financial year on 30 April, UK firms have been proudly announcing the fruits of their labour in recent weeks with the posting of financial results for the year 2004-5.
And although some of the figures are provisional and may still be adjusted to include the value of work in progress and bad debt provisions, the indications are it has been much better year for most.
Linklaters in particular has every reason to be cheerful. Following several years of ordinary financial results, the magic circle firm has announced an impressive 22% increase in average profits per equity partner (PEP) that will lead to bonuses to both fee-earning and non fee-earning staff.
The £818,000 recorded for the year 2004-5 is a huge jump on last year's figure of £674,000, with the firm's turnover also up 10% to £793m representing a 12% outperformance of budget.
Rival firm Clifford Chance will also be delighted to see a significant turnaround with its PEP figures. Last year's profit fall of 12.5% precipitated an all-out war on costs which led to the closure of no fewer than four offices from its global network.
The measures seem to have worked, with the firm posting a 14.6% hike in PEP from £562,000 to £644,000. And the firm claims the figures are nearer to 20% for its Asian arm.
The drop in headcount - which also included a number of rainmakers in New York departing for pastures new - has however led to a slight reduction in turnover, with this year's £915m a fall of 2% from last year's £936m.
A firm very much on the ascendancy it would seem is DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary. The UK arm of the transatlantic firm has for the first time broken through the £500,000 PEP barrier, and this following a year of immense activity.
On 1 January this year, UK legacy firm DLA merged with US firms Piper Rudnick and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich.
And since the turn of the year, the firm has been on something of a lateral hiring spree. In addition to the 19 hires across continental Europe during the last financial year, the firm broke records in London with the recruitment of 11 partners, 18 lawyers, four trainees and 12 support staff from the media and IP team at Denton Wilde Sapte.
Meanwhile in Asia, the firm has added seven partner laterals across corporate, telecommunications, IP, project finance and restructuring and insolvency - including Gigi Cheah, Justin Davidson and John Yeap in Hong Kong.
So just how did the legacy DLA firm - DLA Piper's European and Asian network - manage to record a 12.6% rise in PEP from £475,000 to £535,000 [with turnover for the same region up 18% from £275m to £324m] during such an eventful year.
Asia managing director Nick Seddon says it is partly explained by the strength of the firm's UK practice during the height of SARS and its immediate aftermath.
"The likes of Dentons have had their problems in the UK and so have not had the strength in their core business to be able to continue to invest," he says. "But the strength of our UK practice meant that we were able to continue to invest during those difficult times, and basically continue to follow our strategy of becoming a Top Five full service global law firm."
For example, he says, just as a Freshfields was winding down its operations in Bangkok, DLA Piper was adding insolvency and debt lawyer Lampros Vassiliou and nabbing a six-lawyer telecoms team from Coudert Brothers in Bangkok.
"But what differentiates us from the likes of Freshfields or Clifford Chance is that they tend to be focused on capital markets work, and if there isn't an investment banking community in centres that are thriving then there's a lack of logic for them being there. We do our fair share of capital markets work but it's not our sole reason for being in places. We are principally aiming at providing full service advice to corporates and being where they want us to be across the world."
Seddon adds: "The reason we're not in Tokyo at the moment is because it is not somewhere historically our clients have asked us to be. Now that may change as a result of the US merger because the US business is more interested in Japan than the UK or European business."
While delighted with the latest financial figures, Seddon accepts that for the majority of the year in question they relate to the firm pre-merger.
"But the important thing is that to have negotiated, consummated and started the bedding down process of such a huge merger. To still report a nearly 13% increase in PEP during that same period is exceptional."
See Issue 5.6 for a full account of the interview with Nick Seddon.
N.B. Firms are ordered alphabetically
* Results for A&O and Freshfields are speculative and unconfirmed
** 'DLA Piper' refers to the transatlantic firm's UK arm