Growing influence throughout Europe's main financial centres alongside continued investment in people, global platform, legal technology and consultancy expertise; 9th successive year of physical, cultural, revenue and profit growth and more impact for clients.

Strategic progress – Key indicators

Business

• Four offices launched - Dublin (through merger with Eugene F.Collins), Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Munich – a year after launching in Paris and two years after opening in Hamburg
• Gross revenue increased by 18% to £377m, for the year ended 30 April 2022
• All six core sectors delivered strong growth; double digit income growth for Finance & Projects, Corporate & Commercial and Real Estate; high levels of activity continuing across Disputes practice
• UK income grew by 15% and outside the UK income rose by over 30%
• Double-digit percentage income growth every year in Scotland since 2017 merger with HBJ - Scottish presence now c. twice the size it was at the time of merger
• AG Integrate income grew by 47%
• Closing cash position of £136m (ahead of the PY headline of £108m) is a record for AG
• Total profit for the financial year up £21m to £155m

Clients

• FTSE100 clients grow from 43 to 47
• Top 10 ranking in the Thomson Reuter's UK Law Firm Brand Index most favoured by in-house counsel 
• Ranked in top 5 most innovative law firms in Europe – 2021 FT Innovative Lawyers report

People

• Total headcount grew by 18% (2,348 up from 1,982) alongside partner headcount growth of 15%; 40 new partners – 24 laterally hired and 20 internally promoted – across key practice areas around the world – plus 25 new partners in Ireland
• We now have a total of 348 Partners, of whom 31% are female
• Innovation and Legal Technology team – doubles in size, now 36 strong
• Times Top 50 Employer for Women (15th time) and a top 75 employer in the Social Mobility Index
• 90% Total Trainee retention for 2022 (rising from 86% in 2021)
• 39% of trainee applicants from less advantaged backgrounds, placing AG 2nd in industry rankings (source: RARE)

Environment & Social

• 19.4% increase in pro bono hours
• Two Legal access weeks delivered - 100% of participants hit at least one social mobility criteria and 58% met two
• 63% carbon decrease per employee
• Founding member of the Greener Litigation Pledge
• In addition to supporting our own charitable foundation we have this year supported amongst others, Médecins Sans Frontières, Dnipro Kids, The Trussell Trust, Social Bite and Papyrus

John Joyce, Managing Partner, Addleshaw Goddard, said:

"Our goal through the year was to continue investing in further growth and bringing to clients the advantages of a growing globally active business. It has been another challenging and changeable year and so to have materially grown both UK and global turnover is very satisfying. I am hugely proud of what our team has achieved across many different fronts to better support and service clients, to offer people a great place to work and to deliver our strongest performance to date. 

"The firm's 18% revenue growth reflects two main underlying trends. Firstly, the year was a very busy one for our transactional teams but generally across the firm we were busier than ever working across a greater number of offices on higher value work. Activity levels surpassed prior year in every month of the year in many teams and geographies which is particularly impressive given the 20% growth we saw in each of the final six months of the prior year. Secondly, we made further material people investments, most notably responding to client demand for a meaningful presence in Ireland and Luxembourg as well as growing Paris and Germany.  Already all of our European offices are working regularly together to offer a much wider experience for clients.”

Approximately 80% of the firm's income is generated through its six core sectors: Energy & Utilities, Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail & Consumer, Real Estate and Transport. During the year the firm acted on a range of complex, high value and strategically important assignments across each sector. Highlights included:

• 20% of UK public takeovers in 2021/22, including Rothermere Continuation Limited and the Harmsworth Family on the £3bn reorganisation of and takeover offer for Daily Mail and General Trust PLC 
• All 18 lenders - £11bn merger of Peabody and Catalyst
• Allied Irish Banks - £600m sale of its SME business in Great Britain
• ASDA - separation from the Walmart Group
• Aviva and Allianz - acquisition, development and joint venture of 1 Liverpool Street and 101 Moorgate, with a combined value of c.£500m
• Public Inquiries - the highest profile public inquiries in recent history, the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry, the Manchester Arena Bombing Inquiry and the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry and more recently in the Covid-19 Inquiry
• Department for Transport - development and roll out of the new National Rail Contract
• DP World - $1.7bn joint venture to establish an Africa investment platform with BII, the UK's development finance institution
• Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - review of its subsidiary arrangements, with a view to establishing commercial subsidiary entities for the Trust in the UK, Dubai and Abu Dhabi to house its private patient activities
• Collaboration between teams in London and Paris defeating an injunction preventing an oil company seeking to develop a $2bn oil field
• Par Equity - launch of two commercial forestry investment vehicles, including a strategic partnership with Aviva Investors targeting 1.4 million tonnes of carbon capture through significant woodland creation and peatland restoration
• The steering committee of creditors (on behalf of 38 banks) - $1.8bn restructuring of KBBO, a UAE investment group in healthcare, consumer products and payment systems
• A significant success before the Court of Appeal, which increased the judgment against IBM in favour of Soteria Insurance Limited to £80.5m (before interest and costs) in a high profile tech dispute
• $2bn of oil and gas acquisitions by Waldorf Productions in UK, Netherlands USA and Denmark