Weightmans reports growth in local government and police work as profits rise

National law firm Weightmans said its local government/police and healthcare practices saw growth in the 2016/17 financial year as it reported a profits rise of 21% on “stable” turnover of £95m.

The firm said that during the year it had “continued to invest in its systems and people, whilst operating within a persistently challenging legal services environment”.

Weightmans said other areas to show growth included litigation, corporate, real estate, regulatory, disease and speciality insurance.

The firm recently unveiled a new structure and five-year strategy. One of its six key client markets in that strategy is public bodies.

Managing Partner John Schorah said: “This is a good result in a year which was both challenging but rewarding – we invested heavily in new technology, office space and staff development, whilst managing to control our costs and maintaining excellent client service.

“As is expected from the changing legal environment, we continue to see some reduction in revenue from a proportion of our volume defendant claims areas. At the same time however we are seeing some fantastic growth in a number of areas including in Claims as we continue to develop the business to suit these changing client requirements.”

Discussion with Ward Hadaway about a potential merger were terminated in April this year.