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Our view....
With new offices, new staff and a new management style
Watson Burton has
trumped its larger rivals to become the most profitable firm
in Newcastle. 2005/2006 was an almost embarrassingly good year, with turnover up by
more than 40%. That's on top of the previous
year's increase of more than 30%. And 29% the year before. And 27% the year
before that.
This sort of sustained
growth suggests a firm that is clearly going places -
including to Leeds where it's opened a shiny new office, and
put the noses of other Leeds firms firmly out of joint by advising for
the Austin Reed Group and JD Wetherspoon in their first six months.
It's even gone South and opened a small office in London in the
gherkin. And despite the new offices and continuing rate of growth the lucky
few partners who’ve reached equity status are taking home staggering sums.
Average profits per equity partner in 2006/2007 were reported to be £712,000.
Or sort of.
This was quietly downgraded to £460,000 after an official audit. And
this then collapsed even further to a woeful £220,000 for 2006/2007.
The press had a field day, but reports of the demise of the firm may
be premature. Turnover remained pretty constant at just under £23
million, and the firm placed the blame for the collapse in profits
squarely at investment in new offices and building the firm's core
departments to hedge against the fall in work from the government's
miners' compensation scheme: headcount rose from 160 to
290 in the last three years. So
the writing's not on the wall yet
Back in 2003 the
firm had a dismal newly qualified retention rate of only 25%.
However, it stresses that both the number of trainees taken on and, more importantly
the number retained on qualification, has improved: in 2005 80% of NQs were
offered positions.
Key clients
include Bellway Plc and Fairs Plc, and as one of the biggest construction and
engineering firms outside London it also has construction
company Sir Robert McAlpine on its books and has nabbed a place on the
National Federation of Builders' panel of recommended solicitors. So if you like
the idea of wearing a dayglo jacket over your suit this could be the place for
you.
This sort of expansion
doesn't just come from internal promotions, and in the last
few years they’ve nabbed senior
lawyers from Pinsents Mason, Cobbets and arch-rival Ward Haddaway.
Assuming profits start to rise again, if you're looking for a north-east firm that's on the up
it's an obvious choice.
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