Bird & Bird has posted modest gains in revenue and profit in the second year of its five-year strategy, as the UK-founded firm aims to hit €1bn in revenue by 2029.
Revenue grew 4% in the year to 30 April 2026 to €702m (£606m), marking the firm’s 34th consecutive year of growth but a slowdown from the 6% and 10% rises it recorded for FY25 and FY24 respectively.
Meanwhile, net profit edged up 1% and profit per equity partner (PEP) dipped 1.5% to €819k, its second consecutive fall after dropping 0.7% in FY25.
Bird & Bird said it continued to grow "in a challenging market amidst fluctuating geopolitical tensions and an ever-changing economic landscape".
It kicked off its five-year strategy, the first of its kind for the firm, with launch of an office in Tokyo in May 2024 to serve Japanese clients with outbound cross-border work in core sectors like renewable energy, life sciences, technology and media.
The 1,800-lawyer firm followed that with openings in Riyadh and Lisbon over the course of FY26 focused on technology and IP law as well as general corporate matters.
Meanwhile, key lateral hires over the course of the year included former Macfarlanes competition partner Emma Radcliffe in London and tech transactions partner Sue McLean from Baker McKenzie, also in London.
Bird & Bird also boosted its Paris bench with a four-lawyer privacy and data protection team from McDermott Will & Schulte led by partners Romain Perray and Lorraine Maisnier-Boché and its German capabilities with corporate partner and VC specialist Clemens Maschke and international arbitration expert Heiko Heppner, both from Dentons.
Earlier this year, the firm promoted 19 lawyers to partner in a round dominated by its employment and IP practices.
Christian Bartsch, who began a second term as Bird & Bird's CEO in April, said the firm's ambition continued "to be the leading international law firm guiding organisations through a world shaped by technology, innovation and regulation".
He added that the firm was investing in areas where it saw the "greatest long-term opportunity – our people and platform, innovative legal tech and deep client relationships".
The firm pointed to its efforts to promote the responsible use of AI across its business, including the launch of its Digital Academy at the end of last year to train lawyers and staff in areas such as the risks and appropriate use of LLMs, data handling and prompt engineering.
It also developed its global AI policy covering confidentiality, data use, human oversight and quality controls, noting that "responsible adoption is far easier when expectations, boundaries and accountability are clear from day one".
Standout work over the year included its successful defence of Stability AI in the high-profile High Court dispute brought by Getty Images over the use of copyrighted works to train the Stable Diffusion image-generation model.
It also represented Nokia in a UK Court of Appeal decision recognising arbitration as a valid FRAND pathway for resolving global SEP licensing disputes, and counselled tech-services company LTM on its offer to acquire Randstad’s Technology and Consulting Services business in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Australia.
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