The UK’s leading law firms have struggled to match significant hikes in revenue with similar profitability increases during the past five years, with Legal Week research showing that 30% of the UK top 50 have lower profits per equity partner (PEP) now than they did in 2011-12.

As a result, while this year’s UK top 50 firms have seen turnover rise by an average of 47% in the past five years, driven in part by a string of major mergers, PEP growth has been much harder to come by, with the 50 firms posting average PEP growth of 18.5% since 2011-12.