Stephenson Harwood has held firm against the recession, posting flat turnover of £85.1m for the 2008-09 financial year.

Profits per equity partner (PEP) dipped marginally by 1.6% to £610,000 from £620,000. Over the last five years the firm's PEP has grown from £280,000 to £610,000, representing a 118% increase over the period.

Stephenson Harwood chief executive Sunil Gadhia commented: "Maintaining revenue and profits in this climate has not been easy and we have pretty much achieved that. The most pleasing thing about last year was the quality of the deals and matters that we worked on and the clients we worked with."

Employment and pensions and litigation were the firm's strongest performing practice areas over the year, recording respective year-on-year growth of 31% and 11%. The firm's finance practice remained flat, with revenues dropping by 1%.

Internationally, Gadhia identified Singapore as a top performer with 52% revenue growth, after a year of expansion in the region which saw the hires of Paul Ng from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as global head of aviation and insurance partner Steven Dewhurst from DLA Piper.

Gadhia added: "Market conditions are very tough at the moment and we expect 2009-10 to be a very challenging year, but there is a huge determination across the firm to continue to grow."

Stephenson Harwood is the latest UK top 50 firms to reveal its financial results. Last week Norton Rose unveiled a 6% jump in revenue to £314m compared with the previous year's figure of £297m. However, despite the growth in turnover, profits fell by 17% to £517,000 from last year's figure of £625,000.