Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance reports record global revenue and profit growth

Continued investment drives surge in US revenue growth

Clifford Chance today announced record financial performance for the year ended 30 April 2024. In a year of substantial investment in talent and operations, the firm delivered the highest rate of revenue increase since 2017 and double-digit partnership profit growth.

Financial highlights:

• Revenue up 9%1 to £2.3 billion
• Partnership profit2 up 10% to £856 million
• Profit per equity partner (PEP) up at £2.04 million
• Strong growth globally led by US delivering best performance to date with 28% revenue increase.

¹Revenue is reported in GBP. In constant currency revenue increased 11%

²Partnership profit is calculated after remuneration of non-equity partners and excludes the cost of profit-related annuities payable to partners

Charles Adams, Global Managing Partner at Clifford Chance said:

"In another year of very strong performance, our record profits have enabled us to make substantial investments in our global team and operations. These strategic investments are already yielding benefits for our clients and our firm and position us for long-term success.

All practice areas delivered strong growth, particularly our litigation teams, which had another exceptional year. Energy transition and infrastructure investment, technology including AI, and private capital all continued to drive strong client demand for our breadth of transactional and advisory capabilities and sector expertise on a global scale."

Strong client-led growth across a diverse and balanced global platform

The firm's leading global litigation and disputes resolution and regulatory investigations teams grew revenue by 20% and now represent more than 20% of total firm income. This was driven by increased demand for the firm's expertise in resolving complex, high-stakes disputes, investigations and government enforcement action, across multiple jurisdictions and sectors.

Increased demand for multi-jurisdictional, complex M&A and financing transactions advice drove high single digit income growth for the Corporate and Global Financial Markets teams globally. Both practices also benefited from ongoing investment to expand these core global capabilities in the US and Europe (including London) regions.

Clifford Chance advised on 224 M&A deals during 2023, with a value of US$208 billion, with strong momentum continuing into the second half of FY24. In Chambers Global 2024, the firm retained 33 Band 1 rankings spanning corporate M&A, private equity, investment funds, competition, and international & cross-border transactions.

Other areas of strong growth included the firm's tax, pensions and employment offering and a robust recovery in its real estate practice reporting 15% revenue growth on prior year.

Global growth with 28% increase in US revenues

The firm achieved significant momentum in expanding its core global capabilities in the US, with ongoing investment driving a 28% surge in revenue. The firm further consolidated its leading position in its legacy markets of Europe including UK, and in the Middle East - all recording strong high single digit growth and performed solidly across APAC despite subdued market activity in some parts of the region.

Charles Adams commented; "We are making great progress everywhere but fastest in the US. Our new Houston office is thriving and we have continued to make strategic hires in the US to further strengthen our global capabilities there. We are strongly positioned to continue profitable expansion in the US where it makes most sense for our clients and our firm."

In FY24, a total of 19 partners, predominantly from prime US firms, joined Clifford Chance in New York, Houston and Washington DC, strengthening its broad offering of complex M&A, antitrust, restructuring and insolvency, leveraged finance, tax and real estate advice. This investment takes the total number of partners in the US to 115.

Since opening in Houston with seven lateral partner hires in June last year in a move to expand its global Energy & Infrastructure practice, partner headcount there has doubled to 14, with a total of 41 fee earners delivering for clients on multiple high-profile matters across its core strengths of energy and infrastructure, environmental transactions and regulatory, tax, private capital and technology.

Investing in exceptional talent

Investing in and nurturing top talent remains core to the firm's growth strategy and a total of 29 lawyers were promoted to the global partnership effective 1st May, 2024, alongside a further 29 new partners who joined the firm globally in FY24.

The firm continues to make progress in meeting its global inclusion goals. Twenty percent of newly-promoted partners identified as under-represented minority ethnic partners in the UK and US. A total of 38% of newly-promoted partners were female. The firm is committed to working towards its goal of achieving 40% female partners by 2030, led by the Executive Leadership Group which is now 46% female.

Investing in technology and global operations

The firm was one of the first organisations globally to deploy a fully integrated suite of private and secured AI tools at scale, digitally empowering its 7,000 strong global work force within its published global AI policy. The firm also made targeted investments to enhance client service delivery and efficiencies, including the launch of a new Warsaw operational hub to complement its established hubs in India and Newcastle.

Notes to Editors:

1. The exchange rates used to determine the US Dollar and Euro equivalent figures are USD 1.26 /GBP 1 and EUR 1.16 /GBP 1, which are the average annual exchange rates for the year ended 30 April 2024
   - In US Dollars, these figures are equivalent to revenues of USD 2,829 million, profit USD 1,079 million, PEP USD 2.6 million
   - In Euros, these figures are equivalent to revenues of EUR 2,604 million, profit EUR 993 million, PEP EUR 2.4 million
2. Clifford Chance's Executive Leadership Group is the firm's top strategic decision-making body. More information on our governance is here.
3. Not all partners disclosed ethnicity. Note that Clifford Chance can only collect ethnicity data legally in the UK and US. Full regional diversity data against all criteria we measure will be published in the firm's Responsible Business Report.
4. Under-represented minority ethnic partners exclude white minorities.