Pinsents Masons' incurred a one-off property charge of £9m in 2010-11, cutting profit available for discretionary division between partners from £63.3m to £54.3m according to limited liability partnership(LLP) accounts recently filed with Companies House.

The accounts state an exceptional charge of £9m was incurred in relation to the vacation of its former London office in preference of a move to 30 Crown Place in February 2011.

The accounts show that the national firm, which recently confirmed that it would be merging with Scots firm McGrigors in May this year, spent £20m fitting out the new offices, but gained a £24.6m lease incentive from the building's developer Greycoat.

Pinsents' turnover for the year stood at £212.7m, with operating profit standing at £63.3m before the property charge. The firm's net funds at 30 April 2011 stood at £12.8m, compared with £25.9m in 2010, with capital introduced standing at £2.8m, compared with £11.2m the previous year.

Equity partner numbers fell marginally from 104 to 101, with non-equity partner count slipping from 147 to 138. Total staff numbers dropped from 1,499 to 1,444, with staff costs climbing from £87.8m to £90.6m.
Remuneration for the highest-paid member dipped £7,000 to £558,797.

Pinsents senior partner Chris Mullen has said that the merger with McGrigors will push combined revenues above £300m, higher than initial estimates of £282m. Pinsents reported average profit per equity partner of £400,000 for 2010-11, compared with an estimated figure of £247,000 at McGrigors.