Strong growth at Clarke Willmott as Rosser passes the CEO baton

By Peter Davison

8 August 2023

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Stephen Rosser

Bristol law firm Clarke Willmott LLP has reported another year of strong growth, with profit per equity partner of £489,000 (up 14 per cent) and revenue over the £60 million mark at £60.8 million.

The firm has no bank debt with over £13 million in the bank at year end.

These results are the final year under the leadership of Stephen Rosser who stood down as CEO on 30th April having overseen 13 years that have transformed the firm.

Commenting on the results Stephen Rosser said: “I am delighted with yet another year of excellent performance. It is a credit to everyone at Clarke Willmott that we are in this position.

“Ever since I became CEO, I have been working to build a sustainable, long-term future for the generations that will follow.

"Excellent client service and great career experiences for our people has been at the heart of everything I have worked towards with my team, underpinned at all times by strong financial discipline.

"These principles have been even more important in the years since 2020 and the COVID pandemic, but we emerge from these years in better shape than ever.”

The firm has a reputation for its culture that includes a commitment to fully flexible/hybrid working and supporting a healthy work life balance. Over recent years the firm has developed this approach, with investments in people, technology, a property portfolio and an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy.

Incoming CEO Peter Swinburn, previously a Managing Director of the firm, reflecting on these investments and plans for the future, said: “As we focus on growing our client relationships, we are also building a ‘right size, right shape’ business for the future. Our investments in tech are focussed on enabling our people to work effectively and flexibly wherever they are based on any given day.

“We are also transforming our property portfolio to better meet our future needs. We have already moved or redesigned offices in Southampton, Birmingham and Taunton. In 2023 we will move into the new, high spec Bristol office at Assembly C, and plans for a new Cardiff office are also in place.

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“I anticipate that 2023/24 will be a more challenging year in some ways than we have experienced recently, given economic and market headwinds. This said, one of the firm’s great strengths is the diversity of our business. Our resilience is improved as a result, and whilst some areas may face challenges due to the market, others will thrive.”

Clarke Willmott has submitted carbon neutrality plans for verification by the SBTi who are expected to respond later in 2023. The firm is planning to deliver immediate short-term improvements as a result of actions already being taken, and to achieve net zero by 2040.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.