Law firm makes its case to hit target

Jul 13 2007 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL law firm DWF is well on track to meet its target of £60m fee income by 2009 after revealing it had hit the £50m mark during the past year.

The practice said revenue for the 12 months to the end of April had soared from £34m during the previous year. The rise was partly attributed to the merger with Ricksons which was completed in January.

During the period DWF made a net profit of £8.2m while average profit per equity partner was up 12% at £370,000.

The merger with Ricksons created one of the largest law firms in the North West and the enlarged business’ 820 employees are now spread across offices in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Preston.

The firm operates in a number of specialist business sectors including automotive, education, food and resourcing.

DWF managing partner Andrew Leaitherland said: “Breaking through the £50m mark has been an important milestone for DWF. The merger with Ricksons has helped us to achieve this and brought added strength to our key practice areas.

“However, the figures also show that the firm is increasing fee income through organic growth and lateral hires and we expect this trend to continue. We are working to achieve continued profitable growth in the years ahead.”

Last year, DWF told the Daily Post it aimed to increase its annual fee income to £60m by 2009 and to increase the size of the workforce by between 8% and 10% every year. In January, it revealed it was to become the second law firm to move into Liverpool’s prestige Liverpool’s new St Paul’s Square development in a letting believed to be worth a record-equalling £20 per sq ft.

It agreed to take 42,000 sq ft within phase two of the project in Old Hall Street. It will be a neighbour of rival firm Hill Dickinson which has taken 130,000 sq ft in phase one of the scheme. DWF currently has 250 people working in Castle Street and 84 in Cavern Court, Mathew Street.

The firm was founded in 1977 as Davies Wallis.

In 1988, it merged with Dodds Ashcroft in Liverpool and a year later merged with Foysters in Manchester. This created Davies Wallis Foyster. It began trading as DWF in 2000.

tonymcdonough