The North East’s leading independent law firm for businesses, Muckle LLP, has reported an increase in income and profit for year ending March 2019.
Newcastle based Muckle LLP saw turnover increase from £11.3m to £13.05m with profit rising from £1.9 to £2.8m.
Turnover was up due to a continued high level of deal activity, combined with organic growth across the rest of the firm in line with the people investments started in 2017/18.
Managing Partner, Jason Wainwright, said: “We have had another successful 12 months, delivering a second consecutive year of double-digit growth in turnover (17%) and profit (51%).
“We have also made improvements in internal efficiency and IT investment which has delivered an improvement to profit and we continue to actively manage our overheads.
“While the economic climate remains uncertain, we are confident that we are well placed to be the business law firm of choice for the North East, and already we have made a strong start to the 2019/20 financial year with revenue up versus a year ago, some significant tender wins and several large deals completed and in progress.
“We are fully committed to attracting and retaining top talent in the region, having made seven partner promotions at the end of the 2018/19 financial year, and the launch of our agile working is proving very popular, helping us to retain our people, attract new talent to our business and improve our efficiency.
“Investors In People (IIP) have also just extended our Gold status and Health and Wellbeing accreditation until 2022, after the latest survey revealed that 92% of our people agreed Muckle is a great place to work. In fact our IIP assessor commented that we were one of the best businesses he’d ever seen and that, compared with other law firms of our size, our scores rank third in the world, which is an amazing achievement.
“Our previous investments into our people and new areas of work to consolidate our full service offering to clients are starting to deliver results, with our new agriculture team and expanding private client team positively contributing to top and bottom line growth.
“The commercial and corporate teams’ expansion to cover emerging lines of work in supporting technology and regional start-up businesses, has played a role in their respective successes throughout the year.
“Delivering an outstanding client experience, giving clients real value for money and increasing cost efficiency is at the heart of our growth strategy and is perfectly aligned with the demands of our client base.
“The investment into innovative IT solutions continues, with new products being developed that are almost ready for market which will deliver speed, quality and efficiency. During the coming year we will continue to manage our costs and look to make our work and expertise all-the-more cost-effective and accessible for our clients.
“We continue to place great emphasis on supporting our local communities, both through a significant amount of volunteering and free legal advice our people regularly undertake for charitable causes, and through grants from the Muckle Fund at the Community Foundation, which receives 1% of our annual profits each year.
“Donations from the firm’s profits made in 2018/19 mean we have now given over £500,000 to local charitable causes since we started our fund, which has made a real difference in lots of communities across the region.
“While the uncertainty of Brexit remains and the legal market in the region is competitive, we believe that our down-to-earth approach and focus on improving efficiency, combined with a workplace culture that attracts and supports the most talented people in delivering the very best client experience possible, set us up for continued success.” he added.