Travers Smith saw the amount of money it was owed by clients leap by 40% in the last financial year, according to the firm's latest Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) accounts.

Client debtor figures for the firm stood at £40.7 million for the year to June 2019, up from £29.3 million the previous year – an £11 million increase.

The increase follows a pattern from last year, when Travers again saw its client debtors figure jump by 27%.

A spokesperson for the firm attributed the increase in debtor levels to the increase in size of the business as a whole. They added that the growth is "also partly timing related, as this is a snapshot at the year end and with the size of our billing (often well into seven figures for a single file), it doesn't take many receipts for our debtor figures to swing either way".

"Despite the overall increase, our debtor days, the calculation we use to measure the average time it takes for bills to be settled, has remained consistent with recent years and in line with our expectations."

The firm grew its operating profit and turnover by 10% during the last financial year, according to the documents.

Profit at the firm hit £74 million in the year to June 2019, as fee income grew to £161 million, while pay for the top-earning partner at the firm stayed flat on last year's figure of £2 million.

Combined pay for the firm's eight-strong key management personnel rose by 14% to £3.6 million. The group grew by one compared to the previous year.

Staff costs for the firm rose by 12% to hit £57 million, as the total number of fee-earning staff excluding members grew by 29 to reach 343.

In July, the firm increased salaries for its newly qualified (NQ) associates so that, including a bonus, NQs at the firm can now take home between £93,500 and £110,500.