Former Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) spin-off LOD (Lawyers on Demand) has announced a 15% increase in turnover in its first full year since merging with Australian firm AdventBalance.

The newly formed LOD Global business, created through the Australian merger with its existing LOD contract lawyer business in March last year, saw turnover grow from around £30.5m to £35m during the 2016-17 financial year.

In 2015-16, LOD's UK arm posted turnover growth of 18%, a rise from £12.3m to 14.6m.

Commenting on this year's results, co-founder and managing director of the firm Simon Harper (pictured) said: "We are really pleased with our first year after the merger. I would put the success down to a combination of things; the great fit between the merged entities, growing our service lines and some good work around global best practice, both for our lawyers and our clients."

The firm's merger with AdventBalance was it's first expansion into the Asia Pacific market and the first cross-continent union in the contract lawyer space.

Since launching in 2007, LOD's turnover growth has been rapid, jumping from £200,000 in its first year, to £8.6m in 2012-13 when it spun off from BLP.

When BLP first approved the spinoff of LOD in 2012, it owned an 80% stake in the business.

According to BLP's latest filings with Companies House, it now holds a 64% stake in LOD.

In July, LOD announced that it was launching in Dubai with an office overseen by new managing director for the Middle East, Brett Menadue. Menadue previously served as chief legal officer at Mara Global Technology and was director of legal and compliance at Nokia in Dubai.

The firm has not set a date for its Dubai launch, but did say that the opening was on track for early autumn with the specific date subject to regulatory approval.

LOD now has access to 600 lawyers and consultants in London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.