Linklaters has reported a 6.8% increase in revenue to £2.5bn in FY26, pointing to high client demand across restructuring, digital infrastructure, energy and infrastructure and both public and private M&A.
The UK firm’s revenue figure was matched by its highest-ever pre-tax profit of £1.2bn, up by 11.6% – the third consecutive year of double-digit growth. That translated into an 11.4% increase in its profit per equity partner (PEP) to £2.5m.
Linklaters highlighted the performance of its US and Asia businesses, where it said profit for its financial year ending on 30 April was up by 39% and 36%, respectively. Europe saw 10% growth and the UK 7%.
Linklaters' managing partner, Paul Lewis, noted the firm had doubled revenue and quadrupled profit in the US since 2021, with its US partnership increasing more than 75% in that time to around 55 off the back of marquee hires across M&A, finance and disputes.
The firm added 12 lateral partners globally over the course of FY26 and promoted 37 to partner internally in a round dominated by its corporate and litigation teams.
In London, key hires included top-flight credit solutions specialist Mei Lian from Paul Hastings and Matthew Hodgson, who joined from A&O Shearman as head of public international law.
The firm also hired an eight-lawyer restructuring team in Paris from Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier led by François Kopf, who joined as global chair of restructuring and insolvency.
Linklaters’ corporate practice advised on just under $186bn worth of deals in 2025 according to London Stock Exchange data, including advising CK Group on its $10.5bn sale of UK Power Networks to Engie, and Volkswagen and Porsche on the sale of Porsche’s stake in Bugatti Rimac. It also counselled Canada's CPP Investments on the $4bn acquisition of Nordic data centre operator atNorth.
The firm said this momentum had continued into 2026, with it acting on $166.5bn of deals in the first half – up from $101.6bn in H1 2025 – including on the public M&A side, with the firm acting for Tate & Lyle on its £2.7bn cash takeover by US rival Ingredion.
The corporate team was also involved in some of the biggest IPOs. In Asia, it advised on four out of the top 10 Hong Kong IPOs by funds raised in 2025, among them CATL's $4.6bn HKEX debut last May.
The firm said it saw sustained demand for complex financing, restructuring and insolvency advice, acting in Sunac China’s $10.2bn offshore debt restructuring and The LYCRA Company’s emergence from US Chapter 11 proceedings, while on the energy and infrastructure side, key work included advising the UK Government on the financing of the landmark £38bn Sizewell C Nuclear Plant Project.
Linklaters' private capital team advised on fundraising in excess of $175bn and on the investment of more than $25bn into more than 200 funds, including acting for EQT Group on BPEA Private Equity Fund IX, the largest-ever Asia Pacific-dedicated private equity fund raised to date.
On the contentious side, the firm represented Kelkoo in its high-profile dispute with Google alleging abuse of dominance in the shopping comparison and search advertising markets and for Visa in its defence of thousands of funded group proceedings and parallel opt-in and opt-out class actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
The firm said it accelerated its investment in AI, rolling out Legora’s platform last September across all of its 30 offices and recruiting and training a dedicated team of AI lawyers. In May, it launched Applied Intelligence, a new practice combining Linklaters’ legal, AI and data science know-how, to build AI tools for clients.
In June last year, Linklaters’ global partnership voted to extend the terms of Aedamar Comiskey as senior partner and chair, and Paul Lewis as firmwide managing partner until 2029, and in March the firm moved to new London headquarters at 20 Ropemaker Street alongside moves to new offices in Shanghai and Singapore.
Lewis said the results “reflect the confidence and trust our clients continue to place in us to advise on their most high-stakes matters".
He added: "Our momentum continues to build as we attract and develop top-tier talent and deepen relationships with global clients, including in the US, where we have doubled revenue and quadrupled profit over the past four years.
Linklaters is the second Magic Circle UK firm to post its financial results, with A&O Shearman reporting flat revenue of $3.7bn in the year to 30 April, as PEP rose 12% to $2.9m following a post-merger period of partner cuts and senior exits.
Clifford Chance is due to report in the coming days. Freshfields, however, emulated Slaughter and May in 2023, when it said that it would no longer take part in the annual UK results reporting season.
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