Denton Wilde Sapte managed 20% increase in PEP on a 1% fall in revenues. Politicians would call it efficiency savings. Dentons calls it cost-cutting and being “very imaginative and creative with our pricing and the services that we deliver to our clients” (claimed Dentons chief executive Howard Morris to Legal Week). Conclusion: less lawyers working harder basically.

The rest of the UK’s leading law firms are set to post falling revenues for 2009-10 but not massively – early indications suggest the UK top 50 will see revenues remain flat or marginally down on 2008-09.