Manchester law firm JMW has marked another year of strong growth and is now targeting revenues of £45m.
Income for the 2018-19 financial year climbed 17 per cent from £32.5m to £38.1m.
Provisional profit increased by 12 per cent from £5.8m to £6.5m.
JMW said profits would have been higher but its investment in a London office, situated in Grade A accommodation in the newly refurbished Kings House in Bank, resulted in the firm incurring "substantial property and recruitment costs".
So far 32 people, including 20 partners, have joined JMW’s London office or are currently serving their notice.
The London office is due to contribute £5m of revenue in its first year.
The firm said income growth was seen across most departments.
The newly formed family department, which saw DWF’s family team join JMW last year, led the way with a substantial increase of 134 per cent, with fee income of £4m, followed by the business crime & regulation team with a 53 per cent increase.
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Clients of JMW this year included TJ Morris, Bardsley Construction and the Brookhouse Group.
Highlights included acting for a Singapore-based company on the purchase of Barton Arcade, Manchester and advising the successful consortium of buyers in relation to the purchase of the Premier League Rugby club, Worcester Warriors.
The litigation team continued to act for over 5,500 claimants seeking compensation from Morrisons supermarket over a significant data leak and in April, Morrisons were granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Fees from the solicitors’ referral network Lawshare also increased by 28 per cent from £2.25m to £2.9m.
The Lawshare network is now comprised of some 430 firms, an increase of 50 in the past year.
The firm also won Large Law Firm of the Year at The Manchester Legal Awards in March.
As well as employing 20 new partners in London, there has been 10 significant partner hires for the Manchester office this year. They include Steve Morris (commercial litigation), Simon Maddox (real estate commercial), Andrew Rimmer and Richard Allen (construction), Russel Forward and Alex Jeffery (real estate finance), Scott Cameron (banking), Stephen Heath (corporate) and Clare Stevens (Armed Forces).
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Senior partner Joy Kingsley said: “We are delighted by the continued growth of the firm across all of our departments and to have enjoyed yet another year of record financial performance.
“We very much appreciated the efforts from all of our Partners and staff at JMW in achieving these excellent financial results yet again.
“We are excited now to see how our new London office grows and we are committed to building on our great achievements to become the law firm of choice for clients across all our disciplines, across the whole of the country.
“The JMW ethos and strong work ethic has helped us again achieve this success.”