The reporting season for London’s Magic Circle firms has started with some mouth-watering figures emerging, lead by Freshfields’ partner pay packets.

So what are the numbers?

Leading the field with profit per equity partner (PEP) are Freshfields – £1.73 million

Allen & Overy – £1.64 million

Clifford Chance – £1.6 million.

All firms displayed revenue increases, ranging from four percent for Allen & Overy to 12 per cent for Freshfields and 16 per cent for Clifford Chance.

With 394 partners, the Freshfields figures follow some major deals the London-based firm has done in technology and with its regulatory work, particularly with Brexit-related legal advisory work, including advising Comcast on its £22 billion bid for Sky.

New Remuneration System

The Freshfields deal follows a new remuneration system adopted by the BigLaw firm that would provide payments to its leading legal talent amounting up to £3.5 million and to avoid losing talent to the higher-paying US-based law firms that have been aggressively increasing pay rates and achieving lateral hires.

Employing 2800 lawyers, Freshfields’ revenues rose by 5 per cent to £1.4 billion, while profits were 12 per cent higher at £683 million.