The UK arm of Miami-headquartered firm Greenberg Traurig experienced a 6% fall in operating profit in the year to 31 March 2015, as accounts filed with Companies House show members paid in £2m in capital.

Limited liability partnership accounts for Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) show the business posted operating profit of £5.85m in the financial year ending 31 March 2015, representing a fall of 6.4% on the previous year's operating profit of £6.251m.

Details of the accounts come as US parent Greenberg Traurig yesterday confirmed that it is in preliminary merger talks with London-based law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner.

The accounts show the UK LLP's turnover in 2014-2015 was £14.24m, a slight drop from its 2014 figure of £14.522m.

Under the terms of the UK LLP, which is headed by former Mayer Brown partner Paul Maher, its members can be required to make capital contributions as determined by its management committee. In 2014-15 UK members contributed £2.07m, with an additional £200,000 contributed subsequent to the year end. No capital was paid in by members the previous year. 

GTM's staff costs increased to £3.48m over the period up marginally from £3.39m in 2013-14.  Headcount increased slightly from 39 in 2013-14, to 40 in 2014-15.

Net cash outflow from operating activities increased to £1.902m, up from £283,674 the previous year. The LLP ended the financial year with net debt of £1.5m compared with net funds of £379,309 at the start of April 2014.

GTM is structured as a UK LLP, although some of its members are also shareholders in Greenberg Traurig UK, LLP  (the US LLP) and parent company Greenberg Traurig P.A.

Greenberg Traurig P.A. charged GTM service fees of £1.23m during the course of the year in respect of administrative and support services.

A spokesperson for GTM said: "We are a calendar year business that declares our profits worldwide on a cash basis. On a year on year basis, our profits have actually increased. Revenue is up by 7% and profits by 5% for the financial year just completed."

And added: "The capital introduced by members is as a direct result of the new LLP legislation which came into force on April 6th 2014. This firm has traditionally had very low capital and therefore it was necessary for the partners to increase their capital." 

In October Greenberg Traurig hired 50 lawyers from Olswang in Berlin, giving the firm its fourth office in Europe.