Charles Russell Speechlys reports another year of international revenue growth and investment
Charles Russell Speechlys announces firmwide revenue growth of 8.7% in the year ended 30 April 2023, with revenue growth outside the UK increasing by 18%. Firmwide revenue for 2022/23 totalled £193.7m, with an overall net profit of £37.1m, up 8.7% from £178.3m last year, generating an average profit per equity partner (PEP) of £521k (FY21/22 £524k).
Simon Ridpath, Charles Russell Speechlys’ Managing Partner, said:
“We have had another set of solid results, underpinned by significant investment into the Firm. As we push forward into the delivery phase of our Firm strategy, we are confident that these investments will yield long-term growth and profitability whilst enhancing and strengthening our offering for clients and colleagues.”
The growth in revenue outside the UK was 18% and driven in part by strong contributions from the European offices in Luxembourg, Paris, and Switzerland, coupled with numerous Partner hires and client wins, as well as strong overall sector performance across the Firm’s practice areas.
The 22/23 financial year marked the third year in the Firm’s five-year strategy and was a period of targeted investment and implementation. Charles Russell Speechlys also recently announced further expansion into Southeast Asia with the opening of the Firm’s Singapore office, a significant investment that will strengthen its offering to clients and answer increasing demand in the region.
Simon continues to say:
“It has been a steady year of growth, particularly for our offices outside the UK. This is despite the significant headwinds we have observed in recent months relating to difficult markets, increased people costs and political instability. We have worked hard to cater for the changing demands of our private capital clients and their businesses, and this continues to be at forefront of our Firm strategy. We have also placed great emphasis on investing back into the business to benefit our people, so that we are well set up to flourish and achieve our growth ambitions in the future.
Following the recent appointment of Marcus Yorke-Long as Head of the Firm’s Private Office, the Firm now looks ahead to the official launch of the Private Office in September. The new relationship offering is a direct response to the Firm’s client listening project. It allows us to provide a service to clients who feel as though legal expertise is a ‘given’ in law, and who require a more bespoke and strategic approach to their family, personal and business issues.
“To name some of the investments back into the Firm of which I am particularly proud, we recently announced the launch of our Singapore Office which enables us to provide the best possible service to clients with interests in the region as their needs shift and evolve. I am also particularly proud of the progress that the Private Office team are making to strengthen our international service offering and client experience.”
The Firm's UK sector teams performed well with an overall revenue growth of 6.6%. The Firm’s practice areas continue to thrive, with notable growth in Business Advisory and Transactions (BATS) and Litigation and Dispute Resolution (LDR) (revenues for both grew by 9%), as well as Private Client (PC) (revenues grew by 4%).
People and Talent
Since the last financial year, Charles Russell Speechlys has welcomed 12 Partners to the Firm’s Europe, Middle East, and Asia offices. These include Family Partner, Vanessa Duff; Construction Partners, Francis Ho and Alim Khamis; Corporate and Commercial Partner, Alex Reid; Sports Partner, Benoît Pasquier; Private Wealth Disputes, Partner, Ziva Robertson; Restructuring Specialist, Alison Goldthorp; Italian tax specialist, Nicola Saccardo and Litigation and Dispute Resolution Partners: Simon Le Wita, Richard Kiddell, John Lewis and Simon Hofstetter.
“Investing back into the Firm, through our People, Technologies, and Brand refresh, remains an ongoing priority this year and next, and is being driven by our Business Service teams. To help with this, we are continuing to build out and utilise our newly formed Transformation Management office, and our international growth trajectory remains positive,” Simon added.
The Firm continues to invest heavily into its People with a new commitment to its rewards and benefits programme, namely improvements in Family Friendly and Reproductive Health policies, as well as new incentives around dental insurance and long service salary increases. Those taking maternity, adoption or surrogacy leave will receive 26 weeks at 100% of their salary plus eight weeks at 50% of their salary, followed by 13 weeks of statutory maternity pay, as well as up to 12 weeks leave paid at 100% of their salary when taken as either paternity or shared parental leave.
Charles Russell Speechlys is seeing greater diversity through its early talent programme, with 14 Solicitor Apprentices now enrolled on the programme since it was established in 2017 and a 22% increase in its training contract applications. The programme was introduced to ensure the Firm sees a greater variety of applicants, particularly in respect to social mobility indicators. Our first apprentice cohort completed this year, and both have been offered and accepted a newly qualified Associate role.
The Charles Russell Speechlys’ Business School is now in its third year, and we are delighted to announce that our Inspire programme, for Partners, Legal Directors, and Senior Managers, has been granted ‘Institute Approved’ status by the Institute of Leadership. The partnership between the Firm and The Institute will enable us to continue to build our leadership development potential in the years ahead.
Over the past three years, our IT team has reviewed the essential building blocks of our IT infrastructure to question if they are fit for purpose and how we as a Firm can move forward with implementing the changes needed in what will be the biggest generational shift that this Firm has ever seen.
The Future Firm Group (FFG) is a taskforce established by the Firm's Advisory Council to lead the Firm's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy and action planning. The Firm has introduced a Gender Action Plan, Race Action Plan, also taking a closer look at our commitment to inclusion in relation to disability and neurodiversity and supporting everyone’s mental health and wellbeing.
The Firm is also focusing on reducing its carbon emissions and its commitment to achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, in line with the UK Government commitments and with the recommendations made by the UN Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).