DWF, the global provider of integrated legal and business services, has announced its financial results for the year ending 30 April 2024. Highlights include:
- Net revenue increased by 14%, from £380m to £435m
- All three divisions achieved increases in net revenue
Sir Nigel Knowles, Chief Executive Officer of DWF, said:
“This is an excellent performance for our business and provides further evidence that our integrated legal management approach is helping us win with our clients. We have achieved continued profitable growth despite macroeconomic uncertainty, which is testament to the exceptional service our colleagues provide, and the trust placed in them by our clients.”
Other group highlights this year:
- Insurance Services saw the fastest growth at 24%, driven in part by the successful addition of Whitelaw Twining in Canada. Commercial Services grew by 8% organically, despite a challenging transactional market, while Legal Operations also grew by 8%.
- DWF secured more than 30 legal panel appointments or reappointments including with BT, Tesco, Aspen Insurance and Cadent Gas Limited.
- Our Net Promoter Score, an industry benchmark of how likely our clients are to recommend us to others, increased from +62 to +67.
- We promoted 33 colleagues to partner, or to a higher career level within our partnership structure. In total, more than 220 colleagues were promoted across the business in our January promotions.
- In addition to our internal promotions, we made a further 25 lateral hires at partner level.
Knowles added:
“This past financial year was marked by the completion of our take-private transaction with Inflexion. At the time, we said that Inflexion’s investment would help us to go faster in the pursuit of our strategic goals and we are already seeing that come true. In recent weeks we announced our first M&A transaction since the Inflexion investment with the intended acquisition of leading Australian claims management business, Proclaim. This transaction will scale our global Claims Management and Adjusting team to 320 colleagues across nine jurisdictions, and further demonstrates our commitment to expanding our footprint in key global markets. We have also kicked off the next stage of our digital transformation programme with a significant investment programme which includes the roll out of AI tool, Microsoft Copilot, to all of our colleagues globally. I am encouraged by the start the group has made to the new financial year and we anticipate further expansion-driven corporate activity in 2024.”
Lee Pickett, managing partner of DWF in Newcastle, said:
“I’m immensely proud of our Newcastle team’s achievements. In my new role as office managing partner, I have witnessed first-hand the dedication and talent within our team. We welcomed several outstanding lawyers, including corporate partner James Bryce, and expanded our healthcare team to double its original size, with further recruitment plans for later in the year.
“Our 5 STAR Futures community education programme, partnering with Jesmond Park Academy and Balliol Primary School was shortlisted in the pro-bono/community initiative category of the Northern Law Awards and two other North East organisations have agreed to partner with us so that we can increase the impact of that programme locally. Additionally, we have been re-appointed to the £100m NEPO Legal Services Framework, a significant achievement for our office which allows us to continue supporting regionally significant public and public-private partnership projects. It’s an exciting time for DWF in Newcastle and we’re looking forward to the opportunities that this year will bring.”