It's not just the Magic Circle which has had a stellar year. Some of its smaller City competitors have seen huge increases in profits, most notably Macfarlanes.

Turnover at the firm was £139.74m, up 22% on the previous year. Equity partners are making an average of £1.19m, a 21% increase and more than their counterparts at Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance pull in. Senior Partner Charles Martin told RollOnFriday that "everyone here worked very hard to achieve this. I am proud of them and grateful to our loyal clients for whom we do some great and important work. None of this is taken for granted."

Macfarlanes wasn't the only niche City player where the partners rake it in. Mishcons saw an 11% rise in turnover to £97.8m, with partners earning an average of £975,000. Another standout result was Osborne Clarke, where revenue increased 26% to £142m and profits per equity partner rose a massive 46% to £513,000.
 

 
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Other City firms have also reported strong results. Ashurst saw revenue rise 6% to £586m with partners earning an average of £801,000. Pinsent Masons' revenue was up 4.6% to £323m with partners on £405,000, Simmons & Simmons saw a 7% rise to £268m with partners earning an average of £550,000, Field Fisher had a 9% increase in turnover to £104m with partners pulling in £415,000 and Norton Rose increased revenue by 4% to £1,152m (the firm doesn't report its profits).

In fact pretty much every City firm has so far posted increases both in turnover and profit. The only notable exceptions were Hill Dickinson, with a fractional dip in turnover of 0.8% (although average partner profits still rose 3% to £272,000). And Olswang, which somehow managed to convert a healthy 7% rise in turnover into a 4% fall in proft per equity partner. Although they'll presumably still manage to keep the wolf from the door on £490,000.

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