Stephenson Harwood's average profit per equity partner (PEP) fell 8.5% to £708,000 in 2016-17, with the dip coming against an 11% rise in revenue to £176m.

The fall in PEP from £774,000 comes after three years of growth at the firm, which saw PEP edge up 1.4% last year, having soared by 42% in 2014-15 (in part due to an uplift from disputes cases where some of the work was carried out in previous years) and jump by 19% in 2013-14. The last time PEP fell at Stephenson Harwood was in 2012-13, when an 11% drop took the figure at that point to £450,000.

Managing partner Sharon White said: "2012-13 was a year we invested heavily in premises and a lot of partners had come on board. Similarly, since the start of the 2016-17 financial year we've promoted 15 lawyers to partner and added 13 lateral partners.

"I don't think our partners are concerned about that [fall in PEP]. Everybody knew that the last two years' results were really amazing so I don't think any of our partners will be surprised to see a little adjustment. We want to continue growing our revenue and maintaining a good level of profitability.

"As far as our business is concerned, we are showing good resilience and I think our results of the last year reflect that. We've seen strong performances across the board, all practice groups and at the moment activity levels are good."

White was reappointed for a third term as managing partner earlier this year – she first took up the role in 2009 and has since presided over significant increases in both revenue and PEP. Revenue at Stephenson Harwood stood at £91.9m in 2009-10, against PEP of £561,000.

In February, Legal Week reported that Stephenson Harwood had set an ambitious target to grow its revenue by more than 40% in the next five years without a merger.

The new five-year strategy sees the firm target revenue of £225m by 2021 – an increase of 42% on the 2015-16 figure of £157.6m.

The firm has added a number of new partners recently. In April last year, Stephenson Harwood made its largest ever new partner promotions round, making up nine new partners.

Recent lateral hires include a trio of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) City corporate partners, including former UK private equity co-head Jonathan Pittal in January this year; Herbert Smith Freehills real estate partner Pierre-Nicolas Sanzey in May; and a seven-strong team from Eversheds in Hong Kong, including two partners in February 2016.