Difficult year fails to knock law firm off course

Pervinder Kaur

Law firm Addleshaw Goddard (AG) has reported global revenues of £321m in its results for the 2020/21 financial year, representing year-on-year growth of 12% (2019/20: £288m).

The business, which has a base in Leeds, delivered an eighth year of successive income growth, noting it had achieved growth across all jurisdictions despite COVID-19.

AG recorded total distributable profit of £136m, continuing the upwards trajectory seen over the last eight years.

Following further planned investments in new offices, infrastructure and people, the closing cash position for the firm was £108m, a record for AG, underpinning its balance sheet strength.

AG’s Leeds office contributed strongly to these results.

Highlights from the year for this office included advising the Department for Transport on the successful defence of the West Coast Partnership procurement challenge and defending multi-billion pound claims made by a number of train operators that the procurement process and award to Avanti West Coast and other operators was unlawful.

AG advised ASDA on the deal documentation and the separation programme related to the sale by Walmart of its majority stake in Asda to a consortium comprising the Issa brothers and TDR Capital.

It also advised on the £54m development of the 1.13 hectare Tower Works site, Leeds South Bank – part of one of Europe’s biggest regeneration schemes.

The firm acted on behalf of CPPI Bridgewater Place Limited Partnership on the sale of Leeds’ tallest building, Bridgewater Place for £84.5m

And it advised Sheffield Forgemasters on its recently announced sale to the Ministry of Defence.

Pervinder Kaur, head of AG’s Leeds office, said: “To have delivered this level of income in a really challenging year is a testament to the really diverse nature of our business, and the hard work of everyone in our business.

John Joyce

“It’s been great to see the enthusiasm from clients to the wide range of resources and expertise we can bring to their local and international requirements and we remain grateful to them all for trusting us with their projects.”

John Joyce, managing partner, said: “We are incredibly proud of the people we have at AG. Their combined team effort and our great clients have seen us deliver strong growth, higher profitability and further balance sheet strength in challenging times.

“In the last year we have kept many investments on track and our teams have overcome tremendous disruption to support our efforts.”

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