Houthoff and Loyens keep the top line growing in 2008 while DeBrauw and NautaDutilh suffer revenue falls

Houthoff Buruma and Loyens & Loeff have emerged as the top legal performers in the Dutch legal market, with the firms reporting larger revenue increases in 2008 than their rivals.

Houthoff, which is the fourth-largest law firm in the Netherlands by number of advisers, managed double-digit growth in turnover during calendar year 2008, with revenues growing by 10% from €102m (£91m) to €112.7m (£100.6m). The firm initially reported a near 10% increase in revenues last year but has since readjusted its 2007 figure down from €106.4m (£95m) to €102m.

Loyens & Loeff, the largest firm in Benelux taking into account lawyers and tax advisers, saw its revenues increase by 6% – rising from €282m (£252m) in 2007 to €298m (£266m) in 2008. Its non-tax legal practice was a star performer internally, reporting a 10% increase in revenues from €122m (£109m) to €134m (£120m).

De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, generally viewed as the Netherlands' leading corporate adviser, saw its turnover fall marginally. The firm brought in revenues of €148.9m (£133m) during 2008 compared with €149.2m (£133m) in 2007 – a fall of less than 1%.

News of the firm's results comes as De Brauw remains the only leading Dutch firm to announce redundancies as a result of the recession. Between 60 and 90 support roles will be affected over a two-year period, with the firm also freezing support staff for this year and next.

The firm has also stated that partners are expecting to see a significant drop in profits per equity partner – which are not normally disclosed by Dutch firms.

Meanwhile, NautaDutilh has seen its revenues fall by 4% – dropping from €165.7m (£148m) in 2007 to €159m (£142m) last year.

Nauta chairman Marc Blom (pictured above) said the firm's restructuring programme, which will see the firm reducing its total partner numbers by phasing out the salaried partner role and introducing an associate partner rank, has helped the firm's performance. The firm made the decision before the downturn started and has also moved a number of M&A associates to more active practice areas such as litigation.

Blom said: "I am absolutely pleased under the circumstances. If anything, this is slightly above expectation. The start of the year was good but the last two months were disappointing. Before that we were significantly above target but M&A then subsided significantly."

Commenting on the outlook for 2009, Blom added: "The first months of this year were similarly slow but now we see a slight uptick, although it is too early to tell how fast the market can recover.

"I would expect to see a reduction in turnover for 2009 as a whole, but I am not disappointed by what we have seen so far in the first quarter, given the circumstances."