Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has posted a 9% increase in revenues for 2008-09, taking it ahead of magic circle rival Clifford Chance (CC) by turnover.

The firm's revenues for 2008-09 stood at £1.287bn, up from £1.178 in 2007-08, with the turnover figure pushing it ahead of CC by fee income.

Profits per equity partner (PEP) stayed roughly static, standing at £1.444 m for 2008-09, compared with £1.435m the previous year. Despite staying flat, Freshfields' PEP now stands at virtually double that of CC, which saw profits plummet last year.

The firm's chief executive Ted Burke said that revenues were inflated by the falling value of the pound against the euro and the dollar. Without the currency fluctuation revenues would have been down on last year.

Burke highlighted Freshfield's involvement in the financial services sector, restructuring and litigation as high points for the firm. The firm has done well out of its longstanding relationship with the Bank of England as well as working on capital injections into the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.

The firm also landed key roles on a number of high-profile rights issues including January's £4.1bn rights issue for mining group Xstrata, while the insolvency and restructuring team advised on Woolworths' administration, Oilexco and LyondellBasell's Chapter 11 filing.

Burke told Legal Week: "We have a good year given the circumstances and we are pleased with that. A lot of our people worked very hard on some important instructions and our success is owed to that hard work. The most pleasing thing to us is being called upon by our clients in so many critical situations – that is a great source of pride for us."

Unlike most of its rivals Freshfields has not announced any significant redundancy programme at associate or partner level, although it did pull out of Bratislava at the end of the financial year, opting to close its only Central and Eastern European office outside Vienna and Moscow.

On the year ahead Burke said that he expected it to be much tougher than last year with M&A and transactional work continuing to fall.

Yesterday (1 July) CC announced results for 2008-09 that saw its PEP slashed by 37% – dropping from £1.156m to £733,000. Revenues for 2008-09 amounted to £1.262m, down from £1.329m in 2007-08, with the weaker pound softening the drop.