Global growth for Kennedys continues

We have reported our highest ever revenue of £286m, up 8% from £264m* the previous year.

The most significant growth came in North America, where revenue was up 24% to £55m, following a continued growth period fed by work from new and existing clients, a series of lateral hires and the opening of a new office in Delaware.

UK revenue was up to £153m, up £1.4m from last year. Latin America saw a 20% increase up to £8m, EMEA a 15.5% increase to £27m and APAC an 11% increase to £42m. In particular, we have continued to see strong growth in Australia and in France.

In the past year, headcount has increased to 2,400 people, including 18 partner hires. In May we announced a record round of partner promotions, with 22 promoted. The firm also introduced a new legal director role, with 44 legal directors and 2 special counsels promoted.

Two new business services directors also joined, with Alan Demirkaya appointed as global HR director and Karen Peskett-Hall, appointed as our first global transformation director.

Nick Thomas, senior partner, Kennedys says: “I am very pleased that we have built upon last year’s record figures with further growth. The figures reflect our continued growth into a significant global player and are a testament to the way our teams have continued to respond to and exceed client expectations.   

“We continue to look to the future with real confidence and I expect to make further announcements regarding new offices and hires throughout the year.

“I want to thank Kennedys’ colleagues around the globe for their unwavering commitment to provide the very best service to clients and for all they do to make Kennedys a great place to work.”

In the last 12 months we opened three new offices in Perth, Oman and Delaware, doubled our footprint in Madrid and announced the next major phase of our ‘WorkWise’ global transformation programme, which will see our London team move into new office space in the city’s iconic Walkie-Talkie building and our Sydney team move into 25 Martin Place.

Elsewhere we formed three new associations in Turkey, Bolivia and Ecuador.

We recently announced that Kennedys Kognitive Computing, our technology operation in India, has more than doubled its office space as it continues to grow its development team.

In support of our client innovation programme, we led a consortium, which was awarded funding from Innovate UK to develop Kennedys’ Reputation Advisor, groundbreaking software which can identify and assess the growing threat of reputational risk.