Kennedys celebrates year of global growth

We have celebrated a year of exceptional growth following unprecedented office openings and lateral hires.

Our global expansion has been supported by a 20% increase in headcount worldwide to over 1,900 personnel, with lateral partner hires and mergers across our offices boosting the partnership to 277 – representing a rise of 37%.

Between 1 May 2017 and 30 April 2018 we added 10 offices across five continents to our global network. We completed a transatlantic merger with US insurance firm Carroll McNulty & Kull, establishing offices in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia and Austin. Our offices in Chicago and New York were further strengthened with major lateral hires from rival firm Sedgwick.

We also established a local presence in one of the world’s most important (re)insurance hubs by opening an office in Bermuda, which specialises in insurance and commercial matters, with former local law firm Sedgwick Chudleigh Ltd. In addition, we opened offices in Melbourne, Bangkok, Paris, and Buenos Aires, and created a formal association with Puerto Rico based firm Colón & Colón.

As a result of these developments, we have reported double digit growth in revenue globally and in the UK. Global revenue for the financial year 2017/18 is up 31% to £196 million, from £149.9 million, and UK turnover increased by 14% to £118 million. The increase in UK turnover was in part due to the merger with Manchester based commercial litigation specialists berg and attracting heavyweight London Market insurance lawyers such as the lateral hires from Mayer Brown.

Despite such significant global expansion, we maintained profitability levels and continued to increase our investment in innovation.

Global growth and innovation sum up our focus during 2017/18. We experienced unprecedented growth, which is aligned to our global strategy to be the go-to firm for the insurance sector and to provide the best on-the-ground capability where our clients tell us they need it. Ten office openings over a 12 month period may seem like a lot but these are all firms and people that we have been in discussion with for a long time. They all complement the firm’s core business and strengthen our market proposition for clients. I feel very proud of our achievements, and most importantly, our clients could not be more supportive. Alongside this we have invested heavily in innovation, from launching our global Ideas Lab, enhancing our existing suite of products (Kennedys Toolkit), through to strengthening our development team in India who will support our ambitious plans for delivering 21st century legal services to our clients. We will continue to set Kennedys apart through our award winning tools as we feel this is critical to the future of legal services.
Nick Thomas, Senior Partner at Kennedys

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