Addleshaw Goddard has reported a 4% drop in revenues for the first half of the 2010-11 financial year.

The firm has posted fee income of £78.1m for the first six months of the year – down from the figure of £81.3m reported at the same point last year.

The firm attributed the drop to the use of a number of conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) in significant contentious cases. Without these, the firm said that it would have posted flat H1 revenues on last year.

Addleshaws acts for a number of clients on a CFA basis, including Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The firm currently handling his multibillion-pound claim against Roman Abramovich, which is set to proceed to trial next year.

Addleshaws managing partner Paul Devitt said: "The start of this financial year was more challenging than we had anticipated after a strong finish to the second half of last year.

"While market and economic conditions remain uncertain, recent progress gives us confidence for the second half of this year and beyond. We have seen significant developments in key client relationships, good recent wins and our pipeline is encouraging."

This summer Addleshaws posted a 3.2% drop in revenues for the full 2009-10 financial year, alongside a 5.2% increase in partner profits.