Southampton: Stephen Rosser re-elected as chief executive of Clarke Willmott

Law firm Clarke Willmott LLP has re-elected Stephen Rosser as chief executive for a further term, extending his tenure until April 2019.

As part of his re-election, the firm adopted a new three-year strategy based on continuing growth, the previous three-year strategy having been achieved.

Rosser said: “No one in professional services has had an easy time over the past couple of years so we are delighted that we have come through a difficult economic period and started to see real growth.

"I am very pleased to have been asked to continue to lead the firm for the next four years with a strategy that will focus on growing market share in our key target sectors, achieving faster and enhanced service delivery in all practice areas through continued innovation, and maximising our geographical spread.

“We appreciate that people are critical to the success and growth of the business and so I am particularly pleased with the results of our recent staff satisfaction survey.  Growth should go hand in hand with good staff morale.”

To respond to increased demand for services, 55 new employees have been recruited in the past 12 months across the firm's six offices in Southampton, Taunton, Bristol, Birmingham, London and Manchester.  The firm will shortly be opening a new office in Cardiff.

Focus has also been put on introducing and strengthening specific areas of the business in certain regions.  The Southampton office continues to grow its corporate, commercial property, private client and litigation teams in response to growing local client demand.  It has also seen impressive global additions to its intellectual property client portfolio.

The firm has recently filed its latest accounts which saw turnover grow from £33.1 million in 2012/13 to £36.2m in 2013/14 and profit rise by 33%.

Against this backdrop, Clarke Willmott has remained committed to reducing debt to free up capacity to invest in future opportunities.

The 2014/15 results are expected to continue this trend with budgeted turnover in excess of £38m and performance at the end of the third quarter on track to exceed that level.