Mills & Reeve announces record turnover as Manchester office sees 24% growth

Leading UK law firm Mills & Reeve has announced turnover growth of £13 million in its 2024/25 financial year, resulting in record revenues of £181 million.

The firm’s North West business has seen a turnover increase of 24% in its 2024/25 financial year, with a total 70% uplift over the last four years.

As in previous years, staff have shared in the firm’s growth through the annual all-staff bonus. This year’s national bonus pool, which is directly linked to the firm’s profits and varies each year, was £1.4 million, meaning the majority of people received a bonus of at least £1,000.

The strong financial results follow another successful year, which has achieved several significant milestones and embarked on a range of exciting projects, including:

• Legal 500 recognition with Tier 1 and 2 rankings for corporate and commercial, real estate, family, insurance and private client amongst others, as well as being ranked most active dealmaker by Experian in 2024.

• Increased Fearless Feedback scores with 90% of clients saying they would recommend the firm, getting closer to the 2030 target of 95% client recommendation.
• Strengthening the firm’s international offering to clients and re-branding to M&R Global, with the aim for 40% of all work to have an international element by 2030.
• Seeking to drive success through technology by rolling out CoPilot, Kira and other AI solutions across the firm, while continuing to look at additional GenAI tools to support lawyers and business services. Nine new AI solutions have recently been piloted across the business as part of an ambitious programme of driving technology-enabled client service improvements.
• Having been ranked for 20 consecutive years in Best Companies to Work For, the firm has now been ranked in The Sunday Times’Best Places to Work Awards Best Big Organisations for the last two years.
• Official validation of the firm’s science-based targets by the SBTi, confirming the firm’s near-term and net-zero ambitions align with the 1.5°C pathway. This marks a major milestone in Mills & Reeve’s commitment to climate action.

Chris Ross, partner and head of the Manchester office at Mills & Reeve, said: “This is a strong performance in a somewhat challenging market. The growth for our Manchester team is testament to the strength and ambition of the businesses and organisations in the North West. We’ve continued to invest in our people, technology and offices to push forward with our ambitious 2030 firm-wide strategy.

“We’re only a year into our national strategy and have already seen strong progress towards our priorities of putting clients at the heart of our business, being a leader in our sector and markets, driving success through technology and being a leader in experience for our people.

“These priorities resonate in the region and mean that in a fast-changing business environment, we’re well positioned for future growth as a strong firm with exciting opportunities across the key sectors and markets we operate in. We remain confident in our strategy, strong culture and passion in delivering for clients.”