Watson Farley & Williams has posted a 13% revenue increase to take its fee income above £70m for the first half of the financial year.

In the six months to 31 October the firm's revenue was £76.1m, a 13% increase on the £67.6m it recorded for the same period last year.

Watson Farley co-managing partner Chris Lowe said: "This is another excellent result for the firm and clear evidence of the success of our industry sector focused model despite a challenging macro-economic environment".

Co-managing partner Lothar Wegener added: "The considerable investment the firm has made into our business services over the past few years, alongside our strategy of targeted lateral hiring of high calibre lawyers in our specialist sectors of transport, energy and real estate, continues to pay off."

For the 2016 -17 financial year, the firm's revenue grew by more than 20%, with fee income reaching £159.8m – a 22% hike on the previous year's figure of £131.2m.

Watson Farley also posted a 27% increase in profit per equity partner (PEP), rising from £480,000 to £608,000. The top of the firm's lockstep now stands at £1.5m, with the bottom of the lockstep on £255,000.

The favourable results come as the firm has appointed London shipping partner Nigel Thomas as its new chairman, replacing Frank Dunne, who had held the role since 2004.

Thomas joined the firm in 1987, prior to which he was an investment banker at Lazard.

During the summer the firm strengthened its London office by drafting in White & Case asset finance partner Louise Mor and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe energy partner Colin Graham.

Other firms to announce their half-year results include Fieldfisher which posted a 20% increase in revenue to £64.1m, DWF which saw a 23% revenue hike to £113.5m and Weightmans which boosted its half-year revenue by 7% to £44m.