Record year for Flint Bishop as Midlands expansion plans pay off

For the 12 months to 31 December 2021, our turnover climbed to £16.7m, an increase of 10% on the previous year, with pre-tax profits also rising over the same period.

As part of our expansion plans across the East and West Midlands, we have revealed 79 new recruits since 01 January 2021, with 15 of these based at our central Birmingham office which opened in 2019. Total headcount for the group is now the highest in the firm’s history.

Following our major recruitment drive, several key appointments for senior positions have been secured, including Anthony Carrington (Head of Insurance Litigation) and Haroon Younis (Head of Commercial), who all joined in recent months.

A sustained period of growth in 2021 has been boosted by several high-profile client acquisitions, including the addition of two of the UK’s ‘big six’ energy suppliers. We now act for four of the ‘big six’, adding to our impressive client roster which boasts a number of household name brands including Royal Mail, Heineken, Costcutter, UK Mail and Autoglass.

Our fast-growing insurance litigation practice defended a number of multi-million-pound cases throughout the year, and achieved substantial savings for our clients, running into tens of millions of pounds. This success has already carried over into 2022, which has seen our large loss team recently settle the highest value claim ever entrusted to the department, pleaded at almost £26m. The team saved the client over £12.8m on the claim value alone, whilst also saving close to £500k on the costs of the trial.

The Commercial Litigation team continued to make national law reports, securing several wins in the Court of Appeal, including successfully representing the claimants in the case of Butcher and another -v- Pike and others. The Legal 500 ‘top tier’ practice was also successful in defending its largest insurer client from a challenge by a top five UK insurance company as to the application of the MIB articles. The final decision meant that our insurer client was not responsible for a reserve of at least £15m, with all costs available from the insurance company being recovered.

2021 was also a successful year for our Property and Corporate Finance operations, both of which completed on a significant number of deals and transactions.

The Commercial Property department’s deals totalled in excess of £150m, which included acting on the disposal of a commercial development site for £48m; and the Residential Conveyancing team achieved a record year, completing on over 1,800 transactions over the 12-month period.

In addition, the uplift in M&A activity seen by the corporate finance division, saw the team complete on a total of 50 transactions with an aggregate deal value exceeding £200m.

Chief Executive Qamer Ghafoor said: “Our notable results and achievements over the past 12 months are a real testament to the strength of our people. Together with a strong management team, we have proven that the firm is very resilient, even during difficult trading conditions, due to the team spirit and efforts of all the staff.

“The focus for the next 12-24 months will be on strategies that will drive significant growth throughout the firm, including continued investment in our IT infrastructure to enhance our operational efficiency and deliver innovative solutions to our clients.

“To support our ambitious growth plans, further strategic appointments are in the pipeline to bolster the leadership team, with newly created roles including Chief Information Officer, Head of Client Services, Head of Finance, Head of Compliance and Head of Business Development.

“We look forward to announcing these appointments in the near future.”