Pinsent Masons reports ‘exceptional growth’ at Irish arm

Law firm Pinsent Masons made a profit of £546,000 (€599,000) per equity partner in its financial year to April 30th, equating to over £4.9 million (€5.37 million) at its Irish arm, which reported “exceptional growth”.

The business, which has its headquarters in London, opened an Irish office in 2017 and has since increased its staff to more than 60. It employs nine equity partners at its Dublin office.

The entire business improved turnover by 4 per cent to £495.9 million in the 12 months to April 30th.

Gayle Bowen, managing partner of the company's Irish business, said that while she couldn't disclose revenue for the Dublin-based arm, it has seen "exceptional growth".

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Ms Bowen highlighted how the group had expanded into roughly 10 practice areas, almost half of which were created in 2019. The company has hired high-profile lawyers on to teams covering insurance, intellectual property, banking, real estate and other areas.

It has poached partners from William Fry and Matheson and solicitors from some of the State’s top five law firms.

“We’ve had great success in terms of revenue and staff growth notwithstanding the fact a lot of our teams haven’t completed one full financial year,” Ms Bowen said.

The company didn’t let any of its staff go as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic although it has implemented a 20 per cent reduction in hours for some of its staff on a voluntary basis.

Remote working

Staff continue to work remotely, Ms Bowen said, noting that the business already engaged in the practice before the pandemic.

“We’ve always operated in that way and we’ve used the office as our base,” she said. “I myself have been working from home two days a week [before the Covid-19 crisis].”

“We will remain fully agile and no one has to go back to the office until it’s safe to do so, and we don’t feel there is an urgent need for our staff to go in.”

On the outlook for the remainder of this year, Ms Bowen said the Irish arm of the group was moving into its “next phase of growth”.

“We’re looking to expand out our teams,” she said. “There could be opportunities in light of the current situation or there could be reticence.”

Despite the current crisis, she said: “I do expect us to continue to grow and there might be focus on some teams over others. Over the course of September, we’ll get more clarity.”

Pinsent Masons is among the top 100 law firms globally and employs more than 3,000 staff, including about 1,500 lawyers and 467 partners.