Today sees the publication of the 2018 eprivateclient Top Family Law Firms – the definitive guide to the leading providers of advice in areas such as child protection, family governance, pre and post-nuptial agreements, divorce and surrogacy.
As with last year the firms featured are spread across three tiers, reflecting the strength and depth of their family law teams. For 2018 46 firms feature across three tiers with 12 firms in Tier I, 18 in Tier II and a further 16 law firms in Tier III. The 46 firms and the 212 partners and 689 fee earners generated fee income of over £200 million.
The twelve Tier I firms recorded total partner numbers of 105 with an average of 8.8 partner per firm (ranging from six to 14). 325 fee earners are employed across the top tiered firms (27 on average) and the 12 firms employ 528 family law staff in total. The 12 firms made a combined £104.1 million in fee income in the past twelve months – an average of £8.7 million and ranging from £5.2 million to £15.1 million.
The 18 firms that feature in Tier II have 82 partners among them (an average of 4.5 per firm), 207 fee earners (11.5 on average for each firm), total family law staff of 345 and generated fee income of £62.5 million (just under £3.5 million per firm).
Tier III’s 16 firms comprise of 48 family law partners (three on average per firm), 157 fee earners (9.8 per firm), 226 staff and recorded fee income of £35.5 million – an average of £2.2 million per firm.
In terms of what percentage of firm wide fee income is derived from family law teams, Tier I firms averaged 32 percent of income. In Tier II the average percentage stands at 64 whilst Tier III saw an average 31.3 percent across the 16 firms featured with three firms providing purely family law advice to clients.
Across the 46 firms there were 73 solicitors recruited in the past year. Of these 73, 20 were at firms in Tier I, 31 in Tier II and a further 22 in Tier III.
The Top Family Law Firms is based on a survey of law firms throughout the UK. The firms have been selected on the basis of the most thorough assessment of ten factors of which six key criteria are published in the rankings.
The published data includes the number of family law partners, the number of family law fee earners, total family law staff, fee income, family law fee income as a percentage of total firm-wide income and the number of new solicitors recruited in the past year. Where firms did not provide data eprivateclient used its market knowledge to make estimates, which are clearly marked.
To see the rankings please click below
The 2018 eprivateclient Top Family Law Firms is kindly sponsored by Close Brothers Asset Management.