THE LAWYER.By Natasha Bernal
Spanish firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo has posted a 2.03 per cent rise in revenue to €60.2m in 2015 following four successive years of decline.
The firm posted a fourth year of decline in 2014 with a 2.8 per cent drop in revenue from €60.7m to €59m.
Turnover fell from €61.9m in 2012 to €60.7m in 2013. The results follow a 1.4 per cent drop between 2011 and 2012, and a 7.7 per cent drop between 2010 and 2011.
The firm’s results follow managing partner Manuel Martin’s decision to step down from his role after 15 years in charge to become senior partner.
Finance partner Carlos Rueda Gómez-Calcerrada was named as the new managing partner of the firm for a three-year period.
Gómez-Acebo is the first of the Iberian firms to provide financial results for 2015 – but all are expected to have improved performance last year thanks to an uptick in the market and high activity in the real estate, banking and telecoms sector.
According to Gómez-Acebo, its New York, London and Brussels offices contributed around 13 per cent of the firm’s total revenue last year, up from 10 per cent of the firm’s total in 2014 and 8.3 per cent in 2012.
Martin said that the firm’s offices outside of Spain, especially New York and Lisbon, posted high performance in 2015.
“I would say that it’s been a good year,” Martin said. “We have improved all of our KPIs. This has been the second best overall year for the firm with regards to profit per equity partner, which has increased by two digits.
“The operating margin has improved by six percentage points, we have increased the revenue per lawyer and after the crisis in Spain we have achieved one of the best lockup targets.”
Despite political uncertainty in Spain, Rueda Gómez-Calcerrada said that the market is “exuding an image of confidence that will continue to attract investors”.
“We have confidence that these figures will be maintained in 2016,” he said. “We have plans to review our international strategy but no plans to open in South America.”
Within the firm, Rueda Gómez-Calcerrada said that the focus for 2016 would be on talent retention and improving internal functions to make the firm more appealing to millennials.