German firm Noerr has continued a strong run of financial results, reporting a 5.3 per cent rise in turnover for the 2015 financial year to bring revenue to €207.7m (£167.2m).
The firm said income from its five German offices rose by 6.9 per cent, from €177.9m in 2014 to €190.2m last year.
However revenue from Central & Eastern Europe, where Noerr has a sizeable presence, shrank by 9.3 per cent to €17.5m as a result of ongoing economic and political turbulence in the region. The drop follows another 9 per cent fall between 2013 and 2014.
Co-managing partners Tobias Bürgers and Alexander Ritvay said the turnover was ahead of budget. Ritvay added that profitability was also up.
“After the tremendous growth over the last years we thought it would be good to consolidate what we’ve achieved,” said Bürgers. “We’re still growing but we have the power to focus on quality at the same time.”
Noerr’s turnover has risen by 45 per cent since 2010, when it recorded revenues of €143m.
Last year saw the firm add 18 lawyers on a full-time equivalent basis. Ritvay said the firm would continue to look for strategic lateral hires, but was not aiming to expand its headcount significantly.
“We have the critical mass to do just what we want to do,” he said. “We don’t need to add bodies.”
Bürgers and Ritvay said the growth had been driven by several practice areas, notably corporate, capital markets and real estate with a stream of significant transactions. Those included Vonovia’s €1.9bn takeover of rival property company Südewo Group and acting for Allianz Real Estate on a €500m joint venture with property developer VGP.
Cross-border work now represents 75 per cent of Noerr’s transactional business.
Meanwhile the firm is also focusing on developing its expertise in advising clients on changes to their businesses driven by technology, the internet and digitisation. Last year it worked with the Federation of German Industries (BDI) to produce a piece of in-depth research which looked at the legal challenges of the digital economy.