Understandably, the news that SNR Denton’s UK arm has launched a sector and practice review to boost profitability was played down by new UK chief executive Matthew Jones as house-keeping. But if strong indications prove correct that profits per equity partner (PEP) are to fall sharply for the UK partnership – perhaps below £250,000 – the firm will be under considerable pressure to demonstrate that it can get the practice back on track.
By contrast, its US merger partner Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal recorded a 2010 PEP hike of 15% to $827,000 (£509,000) in its last year as a separate entity and, while any newly-merged firm will face integration issues, a profit disparity of such proportions is an unhappy start to the union. The first year of a merger is supposed to set the tone – with Dentons having traded solidly relative to its peers through the recession and slump, this was not a result touted for the post-merger firm.
