Revenue up but profit down as pandemic hits Shepherds
Shepherd & Wedderburn has reported modest growth but a similar dip in profits in its latest financial year, the final two months of which were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turnover in the year to 30 April 2020 increased by 2% to £56.9m, while profits before partner distributions fell 1.7% to £22.4m.
The firm's Clean Energy Group reported record revenues, up 54% on the previous year, and its Corporate Finance and Banking & Finance teams each advised on a significant number of high value deals, the latter seeing an increase of 65% in the total number of deals on the previous year.
Commercial disputes and regulation, real estate, pensions, employment and private client are all said also to have seen strong performance.
During the year Shepherd & Wedderburn was the top-ranked Scottish-headquartered law firm in the Stonewall and InterLaw Diversity Forum’s Workplace Equality Index of the top legal employers for LGBT staff. It also launched a Smarter Working team, which has delivered innovative projects for many clients, as well as document automation and process improvements across all its divisions.
Managing partner Andrew Blain commented: "We are pleased to report solid growth in 2019-20. Like many businesses, the last two months of the financial year were impacted by the pandemic and since then we have been operating in a very different and altogether more challenging environment. I am proud of the way in which we have responded to those challenges and continued to support our clients as we all face up to the continuing uncertainties of the pandemic.
"The quality of our lawyers and the depth of our expertise across all our practice areas and sector groups positions us well to continue to support clients as we emerge from the pandemic. We will continue to look to invest in talent and technology and to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves this year.
"I would like to thank our clients for continuing to put their trust in us, and my colleagues across the business for the remarkable resilience, commitment and adaptability they have shown, often in very challenging circumstances."