Law firm surpasses turnover target while investing for future
Law firm JMW Solicitors achieved a 12% uplift in 2022-23 revenues, it revealed today (July 7), with turnover rising from £66.6m to £74.3m, exceeding a target of £7.19m.
The £12.7m profit was down on the £14.3m level in 2021-22, but the firm, which has offices in Manchester, Liverpool and London, said this was due to investment in the business, as well as a sharp increase in energy costs.
The firm’s now strongly established London office saw revenue increase by15% compared with the previous year.
During the last financial year, the majority of departments across the firm continued to increase their revenue, with Personal Injury and Court of Protection leading the way, their fee income growing by 23% and 28%, respectively.
In addition, the billing for Lawshare, the unique way for law firms to get legal advice for their clients when they are unable to assist, grew by 17%. Lawshare now has some 720 member firms, an increase of 11% in the past year. JMW’s website and Lawshare together generated 29,000 leads and 4,000 cases.
Managing partner, Marc Yaffe, explained the fall in profit, saying: “Whilst this figure is down on the previous year, this can be attributed to our important decision to invest heavily in our IT infrastructure, with a particular emphasis on introducing cutting edge technology specifically designed to streamline the process-driven areas of the business, so as to better service our clients.
“We also further invested in our London office, taking another floor in Kings House as well as recruiting a further 55 people.
“In addition, we, like other firms, have experienced a significant increase in energy costs across all offices.”
He added: “We believe our financial performance to be strong and that we are in an excellent position for further growth.”
JMW said a key element to its success in the past year has been the carefully planned and executed change in the senior leadership team, now comprising Marc Yaffe, senior partner Warren Martin, and CEO and Chris Sutton. This follows the retirement of Paul Walker as managing partner in October 2022, and Joy Kingsley as senior partner in April this year.
Mr Yaffe said: “Our key focus is twofold: To provide excellent client service and to care for our people.
“Everyone has found the past financial year to be particularly challenging as they dealt with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and a significant uplift in energy prices.
“We have made it our priority to look after our people and have delivered numerous initiatives from adopting a Real Living Wage policy to paying out a bonus, not just once but twice in the past financial year.
“We actively encouraged career development and internal promotions and have improved staff benefits and rewards for all. Our success is testament to the talent, dedication and sheer hard work of everyone in the firm and we the management team thank them for it.”
Last month JMW announced it was again working with North West entrepreneur Sacha Lord on launching a possible legal action against energy supply giants, on behalf of hundreds of businesses, over long term energy deals, involving cases where brokers’ commission makes up a significant portion of total energy costs of a business, adding substantial sums to that business’s annual bill.
It said this could affect millions of firms across the country that used a broker, and it is possible that total claims could run into many millions, if not billions.
