Financial highlights

2022 was a year marked by volatility for our firm, and our financial expectations and the targeted revenue of DKK 1 billion were not fully realised. Nevertheless, we are satisfied with the 2022 result and the revenue that came in at DKK 986 million, corresponding to a growth of 3%.

“As we headed into 2022, we saw a clear potential of reaching a revenue of DKK 1 billion. But at the time, none of us had foreseen the knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis that followed and the financial effects on our market. All things considered, we reached a good result. And what’s more, looking at human resources, our position was stronger at year-end,” says Martin Leth Povlsen, CFO at Gorrissen Federspiel.

A year of high activity on the cost side

Following a couple of years with a low level of marketing activities, especially on the events side of things, and with limited social activities for our employees due to the Covid-19 situation with home working and social distancing, the level of operations and activities was fully normalised in 2022. Bringing the social framework back to the pre-Covid situation has been a priority for us.

“You could say that in 2022 we reinstated the social side of our everyday routines ranging from organising departmental meetings, hosting the Christmas party and Friday after-work drinks to participating in sports activities and so on. In 2022, we also made an extra investment in a weekend trip abroad for all employees in connection with our strategic kick-off. Against this backdrop, the level of costs has gone up,” says Martin Leth Povlsen.

Once again, we have grown in numbers with a net increase of 13 new colleagues. Looking at employee turnover, the number was relatively high in 2022. This was in part due to increasing client demand for secondment of our legal expertise, which led to an increased need for flexibility in the number of employees. This is another factor that impacted on the high level of costs.

Growth in a challenging economic climate

The year’s growth is reflected across the business, but a few areas generated particular activity. Most notably, our focus on the energy sector proved its worth, particularly our client work in the areas of green transition and renewables.

Towards the end of the year, we witnessed the impact of the increasing interest rates, which led to additional work within financing and refinancing of assets. Likewise, we also saw a rise in restructuring activity due to rising debt levels and potential insolvency.

Ongoing process to professionalise and streamline our organisation

In 2022, we kept up our focus on professionalising our business operations, including by investing in the consolidation of our IT systems and the digitisation of business processes with a view to improving efficiency. We also maintained focus on developing and adjusting the organisation so as to ensure that the fundamental operational and support functions to a higher degree bolster our lawyers.

“The stronger the foundation we create and the better the surrounding functions can perform professionally and efficiently, the better our lawyers will be able to contribute to the benefit of our clients,” says Martin Leth Povlsen.

Once again in 2022, all our administrative employees made a huge effort to deliver the best conceivable value-adding services. Some of our most prominent projects included robotic automation, upgrading and further streamlining of our ERP system, new website as well as streamlining of processes related to client inception and invoicing.

Thus, based on the increased efficiency and continued professionalisation, the CFO looks ahead to 2023.

“In 2022, we defined new strategic targets and launched initiatives to make us even more attractive to our clients. We will reach these targets by becoming even better at operating our business and by continuing to keep focus on professionalising our business.”