Figures from the financial year United Kingdom financial year ending 30 April 2011 show that turnover increased by 7 per cent to $US1.87 billion ($1.75 billion). That left the profit-per-equity partner stable at $US 1.8 million and distributable profit up 6 per cent to $US759.8 million.

Turnover from offices outside the United Kingdom accounted for close to 60 per cent of the firm's revenue.

"The Asia-Pacific has done really well," Allen & Overy global managing partner Wim Dejonghe told Lawyers Weekly. "The region is booming, and we have expanded quite rapidly in the region and have doubled our amount of partners over the last two years." Dejonghe cited the increasing amount of cross border work in the Asia-Pacific as being a particular fertile source in enabling that growth.

While A&O did not release the financial results of individual offices, Dejonghe said the firm's two Australian offices in Perth and Sydney performed strongly. "We were very happy with it (our Australian practice)," he said. "Australia was ahead of expectations and did really well."

Allen & Overy Perth managing partner Geoff Simpson confirmed with Lawyers Weekly that both the firm's Sydney and Perth offices came in above budget for the UK financial year

"The themes are the strength and size of the capital flows between this part of the world and Asia... from our perspective you are seeing a lot of Chinese, Indian and other investment into Australia," he said. "We are focusing on M&A, banking and energy and resources and financial institutions, and all of those things have worked well."

Recent lucrative transactions the firm has acted on include advising SABMiller on its $10 billion plus proposal to purchase Foster's and Barrick Gold's $7.1 billion offer to purchase all of the shares in Equinox.

The firm reported an operating profit before tax of £431.2 million ($647.4 million) for the year ending 30 April 2011, slightly up on last year's figure of £428 million.

Average profits per full partner remained stable a t£1.1 million ($1.7 million), with the firm's increased revenue being soaked up by an extra 43 full-equity partners being appointed by the firm before 30 April.

The firm reports that it has 487 partners, of which 398 are full-equity partners.

All of Allen & Overy's Australian partners Are equitys partners.

Under the firm's partnership structure, the highest-paid full-equity partners can receive as much as £1,604,000 ($2.4 million).

To earn that level of income, a partner must be on 50 profit sharing points, the highest level within the firm.

The firm's full partners are on between the minimum level of 20 profit sharing points and 50 points. Partners on 20 points attracted a profit payment of £642,000 ($963,800). Partners are able to increase the amount of profit sharing points attributed to them by two points per year.

Clifford Chance recently announced that its average profit per partner figure was £1 million ($1.5 million).

In releasing its financial results, Allen & Overy also announced it had made 33 lateral partner appointments up to 30 April. Over half of those (17) were in Australia, with the firm poaching 14 partners from Clayton Utz in opening offices in Sydney and Perth last year. Allen & Overy currently has 21 partners in Australia.

In 2010, the firm also opened offices in Athens and Doha, and an associated office in Jakarta. The firm will also be opening an additional office in Washington DC later this month, and an operational support and legal services centre in Belfast before the end of the year.