We’re very pleased to announce another excellent financial year for JMW: we have achieved a 10.3% uplift in revenues, turnover is up from £74.3m in 2022/23 to £82m in the year to 30 April 2024, against a target of £80m.
We achieved £13m profit, up on the £12.7m of 2022-23. Marc Yaffe, our managing partner, said this was testament to the talent and tenacity of the 771-strong JMW workforce and the firm attracting an influx of new clients, whilst continually developing relationships with their existing client base.
During the last financial year, the majority of departments across the firm enjoyed an increase in revenue: of particular note is the Restructuring and Insolvency team with fee income growing by 56%, followed by both the Private Client and Commercial Litigation teams, both of which increased their fee incomes by 30%.
Our fast-growing London office saw its revenue increase by 21% compared with the previous year, with several notable new hires at partner level, including Lisa Conmy, Head of Client Relationships, Lee Ranford as Head of Restructuring and Insolvency, Phil Hind, Head of Property Litigation, and Paul Webber, Head of Personal Injury.
In addition, over the past year membership of Lawshare, our unique referral scheme and support network for law firms, increased by 12%. The number of JMW’s website enquiries also increased by 11% with billing increasing 16% to £8.7m.
In Manchester, we welcomed the arrival of David Easdown from Knights plc as Head of Corporate (Manchester), bringing a wealth of new contacts and a determined focus to further expand and develop the Corporate team. Former Head of Corporate Mike Blood has taken on a new role as Head of Sport and his pedigree in this area is renowned.
John Burns arrived from Gateley plc as Head of Brands, and his national and international network of contacts have already produced a significant amount of work for JMW, and Neil Armstrong joined JMW from Myerson as Head of Construction.
We also launched a highly specialised Commercial Road Transport division with the recruitment of Laura Hadzik and Scott Bell from Backhouse Jones to head up the team, which has already grown its client base significantly in the six months since they joined the firm.
Marc said: “We are pleased to have enjoyed another great year in terms of our financial performance, despite the many ongoing economic challenges facing the UK and the legal sector. We continue to invest heavily in our systems and technology, but most importantly we continue to invest in our people: this year we made 75 promotions across the firm across all levels, the highest number of promotions in the firm’s 46-year history, because we recognise that our people are, and always will be, our greatest asset.
“The JMW culture is one of inclusiveness and support, recognising at all levels the excellence of our people, which is why we have once again rewarded all of our colleagues with a bonus this summer. We are determined to continue to offer development pathways for each and every individual we work with at JMW, and the record number of promotions is, quite simply, a recognition of our talented people. As ever, we are grateful for the loyalty and support from all our valued clients, and we genuinely do love playing our small part in their own commercial success.”
