Transatlantic firm to review UK focus with PEP expected to plummet

SNR Denton is reviewing the focus of its UK business as part of a push to boost profitability, with profits per equity partner (PEP) at the firm's UK arm expected to drop by more than a third this year.

The newly-merged law firm is reviewing the practice and sector focus of its UK limited liability partnership (LLP) as it attempts to shore up revenues and profits going into the new financial year.

The UK LLP is expected to see profitability dip when it discloses its figures for the year end, with some partners at the firm suggesting average PEP could fall as low as £200,000. This would mark a 44% decline from 2009-10, when it stood at £360,000.

SNR Denton's revenues were nearly 9% down at the half-year stage in October, just after the merger between legacy Denton Wilde Sapte and US firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal went live.

The firm's new UK chief executive Matthew Jones is launching a three-month review to decide which areas the UK arm should focus on going forward, with the possibility that the firm will stop advising in some less profitable areas.

SNR Denton has also confirmed that it has restructured its partnership, with a small number of partners asked to leave both before and after the merger.

Separately, the firm is set to see a trio of London partners depart, with former deputy chairman Rory McAlpine to join Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom while social housing financing specialist Ian Roberts is leaving for Pinsent Masons and banking partner James Linforth is joining Stephenson Harwood.

However, the UK LLP has also added to the partnership, most recently through last month's hire of HBJ Gateley Wareing partners Alastair Young and Andrew Jones.

In a statement, SNR Denton said: "As we have become a new firm with 60 locations worldwide focused on eight client sectors, our priority remains fully to support our clients with service lines locally and globally. Now is the right time to conduct a strategic review of how we do that.

"Our focus will be to anticipate and respond to the needs of our clients and the challenges they face in a dynamic market, while achieving optimum levels of profitability… This has been a tough year for many clients, and we do not escape the business realities our clients have experienced."