London professional services firm increases turnover 4% amid "political turmoil"

A multinational professional services firm has announced that it has seen an increase in turnover despite political challenges and a change in direction.

Pinsent Masons, which is headquartered in London, has reported a 4 per cent increase in turnover for FY20, increasing to £495.5m.

It said that the period saw disruption across its markets, including Brexit and “political turmoil” in the UK and protests in Hong Kong, but that its performance was ultimately “satisfactory”.

The past year has seen the company adopt a new strategy to become a purpose-led professional services business with a focus on law, and it expects to come through FY21 “strong, united, and better than before”.

John Cleland, managing partner at Pinsent Masons, commented: “Our refreshed strategy commits us to measure and communicate performance and progress by reference to metrics that reflect our purpose and measure our impact on our colleagues, clients and communities.

“This means measuring – and valuing – much more than just revenue and PEP. We’ve chosen four headline metrics that we believe will hallmark our progress and at the same time be meaningful for colleagues, clients and a wide set of stakeholders.

“The pandemic has accelerated a cultural and behavioural shift across the business community. We run the risk of alienating clients and future recruits by judging success primarily by reference to turnover and equity pay.

“Those are probably the two metrics our current and future stakeholders care about the least. It’s time to start the process by which we change that.”

“From a financial perspective, I would characterise FY20 as satisfactory given the disruption in a number of our markets; whether that be Brexit and political turmoil in the UK, protests in Hong Kong, US/China trade wars, US/Iran tensions impacting the Middle East or bushfires in Australia.

“However, this is already ancient history. The year ahead will present challenges the like of which we have not seen before. Despite obvious headwinds brought about by Covid-19, we’re encouraged by the momentum we’ve found going into the new financial year.

“Already we’ve closed a number of landmark matters including the sale of £14bn investment platform Ascentric by Royal London, securing planning permission on the UK’s largest solar farm at Cleve Hill, and acting for Exasol AG on the first IPO in Germany of 2020.

“We firmly believe that if we continue to do business in the right way and for the right reasons, our business will come through this year strong, united and better than before.”