DAC Beachcroft unveils sixth successive year of growth, increased profitability ahead of impacts of COVID-19

Law firm DAC Beachcroft saw turnover rise 6% to £258m and profit before tax rise 7% to £56m for the year ended 30 April 2020.

Announcing its provisional, unaudited results, the law firm said profit per member grew 3% to circa £590k.

It also said it had again improved its net cash position, having £8m net cash by year end, “having put in place significant liquidity retention measures in response to the COVID-19 crisis and its anticipated effects”.

DAC Beachcroft said it was the firm’s sixth successive year of combined turnover growth, profit before tax growth, profit before tax margin growth, profit per member growth, and net debt reduction/net cash enhancement.

Managing Partner David Pollitt said, “Our results reflect, at the Group level, yet another year of consistent improvement. I am very pleased we were able to end the year strongly, particularly given the impacts of COVID-19 which started to take hold in the final quarter.

“The ongoing underlying financial improvement we have seen this year is down to our continued adherence to a clear and consistent purpose, strategy and cultural principles.”

Pollitt added that the diversity of its business was also a source of robustness. “We act for all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, corporate, commercial and regulatory legal advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and we advise all of the UK’s top-11 housebuilders.”

“As a result, our business is as strategically, financially and operationally resilient as possible, and we anticipate that these efforts will hold us in good stead in the current, straitened times. We remain in good shape and are well placed to address any challenges an increasingly uncertain future may bring, with resilience and adaptability. Moreover, this is a time when clients need resilient law firms, able to support them, and we are one such firm.”

DAC Beachcroft has meanwhile re-elected Pollitt unopposed for a second term as Managing Partner. He will begin his new five-year term on 1 November 2020.