The members present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2026.
The principal activity of the limited liability partnership continued to be that of a solicitors firm.
Spencer West LLP (“Spencer West) is headquartered in the City of London and is a leading distributed law Firm.
This means that senior lawyers, (equating to Partner-level in a traditional law firm model) of typically at least 8 years’ post-qualification experience, join the Firm as legal consultants, bringing their clients with them. They are remunerated based on a share of their revenues invoiced and collected. They are also remunerated with origination fees where they originate work within the Firm and which is carried out by others in the Firm.
Increasingly, Partners develop their own direct teams, referred to as “business units”. There is no obligation on the Partners to build out a business unit, but it provides capacity, raises execution standards and allows the Partner to focus on the higher value work and business development. The Partner shapes the business unit team, including the commercial terms on which team members are remunerated, and for which the Partner takes commercial responsibility. The members of the business unit may include other Partners, lawyers (senior or junior) and support staff, such as paralegals, executive assistants and so on. The Firm vets the lawyer team members to ensure that the Firm’s high standards are maintained. The business unit members enter into a compliance agreement with the Firm whereby they commit to upholding the Firm’s policies, controls and procedures (“PCP’s”).The business unit team in turn, then become valued members of the Firm.
Founded in 2010, the Firm has grown from being a two Partner, City of London Practice in 2017 to now having over 270 Partners.
Core Values
Spencer West is founded on three core values: expertise, collaboration and business experience. The Firm places huge importance on its values: technical excellence from all of its lawyers, business acumen that comes from seeing with a commercial perspective, and a collaborative approach, which means that colleagues can rely on each other’s support. Lawyers are recruited to Spencer West on the basis of a shared commitment to the Firm’s values. The Firm’s lawyers in turn find themselves part of a community where there is real ‘esprit de corps’ and where each Partner matters.
This is combined with a culture of warm hospitality and a community spirit where colleagues are valued and supported. By joining Spencer West, colleagues become part of a team of high-calibre lawyers who assist each other to fulfil their potential and succeed.
Purpose
Spencer West has a strong sense of purpose. It is there first and foremost to support its clients, by providing world-class legal services, but also to support colleagues – whether our lawyers or our leadership, operational or administrative teams – and to make a positive impact in the various communities in which our colleagues live and work, wherever that happens to be across the world.
The Firm has defined strong ESG credentials and a commitment to apply substantial resources to good causes, notably through the Spencer West Foundation.
Our Growth
The Firm is continuing to benefit from significant year-on-year growth, improving revenue from £36.8 million to £38.7 million for the year ended 31st March 2026.
The Firm’s impressive growth arises from adherence to its core values, thoughtful recruitment of talented lawyers who share the Firm’s values, and the dedication of the Firm’s team across leadership and operations. Those joining the Firm are attracted to its high-quality expertise, warm connected culture and the international scope of its practices.
The Firm continues to prioritise high-calibre expertise who abide by its core values over and above any growth metrics. The Firm strongly believes that unwavering commitment to the former inexorably leads to the latter. The Firm also sees ample opportunity to continue to grow through the calibre of lawyers attracted to it.
The Firm encourages its Partners to recommend others at Partner-level to join the Firm. Over time, this is expected to be one of the factors that drives an elevation of the target market for recruitment in the upper tier and feeds directly through to increased profitability.
An important part of the Firm’s growth arises from colleagues building out their “business units”, which increases their capacity to undertake larger scale work, free up time to engage in business development, and deliver more responsive services. The Firm is targeting an increase in the Firm’s growth through nurturing the development of business units, particularly amongst the Partners with larger practices and which also feeds directly to an increase in profitability.
The Firm does not perceive any constraints to its growth at any point in the foreseeable future. It is certainly the case that office premises will not act as a constraint. Unlike a traditional law firm, the Firm’s office premises are contracted on a more flexible, serviced office or managed basis, rather than a lease or purchase, and besides the premises are intended to accommodate only a proportion of the Partners at any one time – a ‘hub’ approach. Equally, working capital is not expected to constrain growth, in contrast to the traditional equity model. The Firm’s principal cost is the payment of its Partners, and payment is not due unless the revenues have been invoiced and collected. The Firm operates conservatively on expenditure in such a way as to provide surplus margin and therefore does not require any long-term finance or debt.
The Firm continues to assess, monitor and seek to mitigate risks. This work is led by the Risk Committee, whose remit is to consider and address any risks that are perceived to arise, discussing and addressing these proactively. The Risk Committee meets monthly throughout the year (except for August). It comprises Spencer West LLP’s Compliance Officer of Legal Practice (COLP), Compliance Officer of Finance & Administration (COFA) and Money-Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), which in each case are carried out by a professional appointee who is highly experienced in discharging these regulatory functions. It also comprises leaders of some of the principal practice groups whom the Firm refers to as ‘Directors’, including real estate, dispute resolution, private client/private wealth and family law, as well as data protection/cyber security, led by our Data Protection Officer, and finance, led by our Chief Financial Officer and the Founding Partners.
Some of the principal risks identified are set out below, along with their mitigation.
Firm’s cohesion and Partner retention. The Firm’s lawyers can terminate by serving notice and join another Firm. This is a risk that all law firms are exposed to, although at Partner level the distributed model may make practices more portable. The Firm encourages a cohesive culture, in which all colleagues are valued and supported, and which encourages connections across practice areas, sectors and geographies, and within regions and jurisdictions thereby seeking to catalyse opportunities for all our colleagues. A byproduct of this culture is to reduce the risk of colleagues leaving the Firm. The high proportion of invoiced and received revenue generated by a Partner that is paid to the Partner (between 70 and 80%) along with the referral fees policy (typically 15% of work invoiced and collected by other Partners performing work referred to them by the referring Partner) means that replicating such a high return on work carried out in a traditional law firm is almost impossible thus making flight back to a traditional law firm less attractive. Additionally, the Firm offers very competitive payment rates for its lawyers even within the distributed sector, therefore again mitigating the flight risk associated with its Partners having ostensibly more readily portable practices.
Succession. Professional services firms generally, and law firms in particular, often manage succession badly. The Firm has a 100-year vision, which means that it considers from the outset, and as part of its culture, the requirements to identify and promote successive generations of leaders and operational staff and put in place a programme to reward performance on a yearly basis and over the medium- and long-term.
Changes in tax treatment. Partners are very clearly intended to operate, and their terms of engagement with the relevant Practice, are structured, as being independent contractors. The Firm makes no demands on what work to accept or where, when or how to operate. In view of this, it is considered unlikely that the Partners’ status in any particular jurisdiction would be regarded as anything other than that intended, namely as self-employed lawyers. The status tests for independent contractor status is largely the same in the jurisdictions in which the Firm practices or intends to practice, and in weighing the composite factors taken into consideration the overwhelming majority of key factors weigh in favour of independent contractor status. Nevertheless, if a change in tax treatment were to determine otherwise, this could expose a particular Practice to potential additional costs. Furthermore, the relevant Practice would in that eventuality seek to limit the effect of change in tax treatment, if necessary, by seeking appropriate cases to renegotiate the terms that the Practice has with its Partners in a way that is mutually acceptable.
Professional liability claims. The Firm, like any professional services firm, is exposed to the risk of breach of professional duty. The risk is mitigated by ensuring that each Practice is ring-fenced from a liability perspective, by putting in place separate engagement terms between the client and the relevant Practice that is being engaged, and by having PCPs whereby no Practice assumes any liability for the acts and omissions of any other Practice. The Firm has appropriate limits of liability, which it puts in place for each Practice, and in amounts which are covered by the revenue income and the levels of insurance cover in place. The Firm’s Practices arrange professional liability insurance in amounts which are kept under review regularly.
Regulatory action. The Firm operates in an increasingly demanding regulatory environment, where the legal regulator in the relevant jurisdiction may impose fines or other sanctions on any Practice, which ultimately could include the closure of that Practice. The Firm mitigates this risk by training our colleagues to operate to high regulatory standards, and by carrying out file reviews to ensure that these standards are being upheld. The Firm ringfences each Practice, with the intention that any regulatory default does not occasion a default in any other Practice. In an extreme case leading to the closure of a Practice, the Firm has terms in place with each Practice, and between the Practice and its Partners, intended to enable the arrangements to be novated to a different Practice to ensure continuity of operations.
Data breach. It is regrettably a feature of business life nowadays that all businesses are exposed to risk of data breach. This is especially the case for law firms, as they handle confidential data. The Firm benefits from specialist third-party cyber-security services that seek continually to identify and mitigate proactively any perceived data security risks. This includes providing regular ongoing training for our lawyers and other staff, undertaking penetration testing, and maintaining back-ups of data.
Market and Economic Conditions. The Firm is exposed to risks arising from changes in economic conditions. This is mitigated by the diversity of practices in any jurisdiction, such as to include counter-cyclical elements such as dispute resolution, restructuring and insolvency, alongside corporate and commercial and real estate. Further, diversification is achieved across geographies, so that adverse effects from any downturn in any particular jurisdiction may be compensated to an extent by performance in other jurisdictions.
The Firm monitors an increasing range of financial and non-finance key performance indicators (KPIs). However, the Firm’s principal focus is on enabling a supportive culture true to the Firm’s values and purpose, and by doing so, the byproduct is strong KPIs. At the same time, the Firm by developing a market-leading offering, is liable to deliver market-leading gross and net margins as the Firm develops.
Partner numbers: The current total is 279, an increase of 19 (7%) since March 2025, This metric is relevant to breadth and depth of practices.
Practice Areas: The Firm has 9 main practice areas, and measures concentration to adequate levels. No one practice area accounts for more than 25% of revenue.
Revenues: The Firm’s revenues have increased over the last 12months to £38.7 million, compared to revenues of £36.8million. Revenue growth was 5%.
Gross Profit and Profit margins: The Firm’s gross profit has increased from £4.9 million to £6.3 million in a 12 month period and gross profit margins risen from 13.2% to 16.4%, Profit for the financial year has increased from £1.5million to £2.4million, and margin has increased to 6.3% from 4.0%
Cash: Cash and Cash equivalent stands at £2.8million and increase of £949k compared to the prior year. The company continues to generate and reinvest cash in the business.
Other non-financial KPIs: The Firm continues to track and report on number of practices and number of fee generating lawyers, partner retention rates, brand strength, diversity and inclusion and regulatory compliance through breaches and complaints.
Origination and referral across Firm: The Firm has the ambition to be the most connected of law firms with the distributed model, which is intended to generate the most mutual opportunity of business development and referral. As ever, the focus for our Partners needs to be on developing business relationships amongst colleagues as well as externally, and it is out of these relationships that ‘referral’ opportunities arise. The extent of ‘referral’ opportunities varies according to practice area, sector and geography. Nevertheless, as an overall measure, approximately 35.7% of matters involve an element of referral.
Technology
The Firm has invested in and developed proprietary technology for the support of its operations and the benefit of its lawyers. This includes specialist software (which it refers to as the ‘Revenue Dashboard’) for the calculation of payments between colleagues, which takes account of business units, origination fees and other applicable payments. The Revenue Dashboard has a “self-billing” function which creates a draft invoice for our lawyers to the relevant Practice, thereby supporting efficient administration for our lawyers.
The Firm has also developed various integrations, which connect through an API with a third party licensed practice management system, supporting processes that align with the Firm’s PCPs.
Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’)
The Firm sees the adoption of AI as providing a step-change in technology enabling radical improvement in the Firm’s processes, which will benefit our lawyers and clients, grow the Firm, and support compliance.
Our internal technology team directly support our lawyers to harness technology for the delivery of client services. For the Firm’s lawyers and clients, AI brings tools that enable our lawyers to provide greater value-add in a range of services from corporate law (including in respect of data rooms and due diligence) through to dispute resolution (with disclosure and identifying key documents). The fact that the Firm is Partner-led means that the Firm stands to benefit disproportionately from the benefits of AI: this is in marked contrast to the traditional law firm model, which is dependent on more routine work being passed to less experienced fee earners, where technology may result in part of this requirement being reduced. By contrast, our Partners, empowered with technology, will be able to provide services far more effectively, which in turn will lead to growth in revenues and practices for the benefit of our lawyers and clients alike.
This year marked a pivotal shift in the Firm’s AI journey, transforming ambition into meaningful action. We have made significant investments in AI technologies, strengthened our in-house AI and business intelligence expertise, and set a clear strategic roadmap that will guide our evolution over the next two years. Looking ahead, we are exploring a range of innovative tools designed not only to enhance the Firm’s overall capabilities but also to address the unique needs of individual practice areas.
At the heart of this vision is the development of a bespoke AI platform, purpose-built for the Firm and shaped around the way we work. This investment has been supported by the expansion of our specialist AI engineering capability, ensuring we have the expertise to create solutions that deliver lasting value. As the AI landscape continues to advance at pace, our focus remains on harnessing technology in a way that drives innovation, elevates operational excellence, and enhances the service we provide to our clients, while upholding the highest standards of governance, trust, and professional integrity.
The Firm intends to continue to invest in innovative and new technology, notably AI, to grow the Firm’s revenues.
Future Outlook
Looking ahead, we see significant opportunities to grow by expanding into new practice areas, new locations, leveraging technology, and continuing to attract top legal talent. We have recently invested in an in-house talent acquisition team, which comprised of four members and this will supplement our core third party recruiters. Our distributed model positions us strongly to adapt to client needs, economic conditions, and sector trends. We remain confident in our ability to deliver sustainable growth while maintaining the highest standards of compliance, professionalism, and client service.
The members' drawing policy allows each member to draw a proportion of their profit share, subject to the cash requirements of the business.
A member's capital requirement is linked to their share of profit and the financing requirement of the limited liability partnership. There is no opportunity for appreciation of the capital subscribed. Just as incoming members introduce their capital at "par", so the retiring members are repaid their capital at "par".
The designated members who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
The members are responsible for preparing the annual report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
Company law (as applied by The Limited Liability Partnerships (Accounts and Audit) (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2008) requires the members to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the members have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice. Under company law (as applied by The Limited Liability Partnerships (Accounts and Audit) (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2008) the members must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the limited liability partnership and of the profit or loss of the limited liability partnership for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the members are required to:
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the limited liability partnership will continue in business.
The members are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the limited liability partnership’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the limited liability partnership and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006 (as applied by The Limited Liability Partnerships (Accounts and Audit) (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2008). They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the limited liability partnership and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
We have audited the financial statements of Spencer West LLP (the 'limited liability partnership') for the year ended 31 March 2026 which comprise the income statement, the statement of financial position, the reconciliation of members' interests and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Basis for opinion
Conclusions relating to going concern
Other information
As explained more fully in the members' responsibilities statement, the members are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the members determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the members are responsible for assessing the limited liability partnership's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the members either intend to liquidate the limited liability partnership or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, incorporated the following:
The engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
We identified the laws and regulations applicable to the LLP through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the legal services sector.
We focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the LLP, including the Companies Act 2006, taxation legislation, employment, and health and safety legislation;
We assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence;
Identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We assessed the susceptibility of the LLP's financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:
Making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud; and
Considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, our work included:
Performance of analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
Testing journal entries to identify unusual transactions. Investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions;
Observation and identification of internal controls in place, specifically around sales orders, sales tendering process, purchase ledger approvals, payroll and bank transactions; and
An assessment of whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates around stock provisions were indicative of potential bias.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
Agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting evidence;
Enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
Reviewing correspondence with HMRC and reviewing for evidence of correspondence with legal advisors.
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the limited liability partnership's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 as applied by the Limited Liability Partnerships (Accounts and Audit) (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the limited liability partnership's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the limited liability partnership and the limited liability partnership's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The income statement has been prepared on the basis that all operations are continuing operations.
Spencer West LLP is a limited liability partnership incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Longbow House, 20 Chiswell Street, London, EC1Y 4TW.
The limited liability partnership's principal activities are disclosed in the Members' Report.
These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 as applied by LLPs and the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), Accounting by Limited Liability Partnerships, issued in December 2021.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the limited liability partnership. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
This limited liability partnership is a qualifying entity for the purposes of FRS 102, being a member of a group where the parent of that group prepares publicly available consolidated financial statements, including this limited liability partnership, which are intended to give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the group. The limited liability partnership has therefore taken advantage of exemptions from the following disclosure requirements:
Section 7 ‘Statement of Cash Flows’: Presentation of a statement of cash flow and related notes and disclosures;
Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instrument Issues: Interest income/expense and net gains/losses for financial instruments not measured at fair value; basis of determining fair values; details of collateral, loan defaults or breaches, details of hedges, hedging fair value changes recognised in profit or loss and in other comprehensive income;
Section 33 ‘Related Party Disclosures’: Compensation for key management personnel.
The members have prepared budgets and cash flow forecasts for a period of at least twelve months from the date of approval of the financial statements. These forecasts indicate that the Company will have sufficient resources to meet its liabilities as they fall due.
The firm operates a flexible cost model and continues to generate positive cash flows. After considering the firm ’s financial position, forecast performance and principal risks, the members have a reasonable expectation that the firm has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, the financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis.
Turnover is measured at the fair value of the consideration receivable, net of discounts and added taxes. Turnover includes revenue earned from work invoices during the year together with accrued revenue for services provided to the client during the year.
Rendering of services
Turnover is recognised when the LLP has performed services in accordance with the agreement with the relevant client and has obtained a right to consideration for those services. Where such income has not been billed at the year end it is included in amounts recoverable on contracts into amounts amounts recoverable on work in progress.
When valuing the year end work in progress the firm considers the age of the debt, the specific circumstances of each balance, expected future cash flows, and also takes into account the firm’s past experience of recoverability.
Interest Income
Interest income earned on bank deposit accounts is recognised in the profit and loss account on an accruals basis over the period to which it relates. Interest accrued but not received at the reporting date is recognised as accrued income.
Members' participation rights are the rights of a member against the LLP that arise under the members' agreement (for example, in respect of amounts subscribed or otherwise contributed remuneration and profits).
Members' participation rights in the earnings or assets of the LLP are analysed between those that are, from the LLP's perspective, either a financial liability or equity, in accordance with section 22 of FRS 102. Members' participation rights, including amounts subscribed or otherwise contributed by members, for example members' capital, are classed as liabilities unless the LLP has an unconditional right to refuse payment to members, in which case they are classified as equity.
Profits are automatically divided as they arise, so the LLP does not have an unconditional right to refuse payment and the amounts arising that are due to members are in the nature of liabilities. They are therefore treated as an expense and presented as members remuneration charged as an expense in arriving at the result for the relevant year. To the extent that they remain unpaid at the period end, they are shown as liabilities.
Once an unavoidable obligation has been created in favour of members through allocation of profits or other means, any undrawn profits remaining at the reporting date are shown as 'Loans and other debts due to members' to the extent they exceed debts due from a specific member.
Other amounts applied to members, for example remuneration paid under an employment contract and interest on capital balances, are treated in the same way as all other divisions of profits, as described above, according to whether the LLP has, in each case, an unconditional right to refuse payment.
Property, plant and equipment are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the income statement.
At each reporting period end date, the limited liability partnership reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any). Where it is not possible to estimate the recoverable amount of an individual asset, the limited liability partnership estimates the recoverable amount of the cash-generating unit to which the asset belongs.
Recoverable amount is the higher of fair value less costs to sell and value in use. In assessing value in use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset for which the estimates of future cash flows have not been adjusted. If the recoverable amount of an asset (or cash-generating unit) is estimated to be less than its carrying amount, the carrying amount of the asset (or cash-generating unit) is reduced to its recoverable amount. An impairment loss is recognised immediately in profit or loss, unless the relevant asset is carried at a revalued amount, in which case the impairment loss is treated as a revaluation decrease.
Cash and cash equivalents are basic financial assets and include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The limited liability partnership has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the limited liability partnership's statement of financial position when the limited liability partnership becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset and the net amounts presented in the financial statements when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include trade and other receivables and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Other financial assets, including investments in equity instruments which are not subsidiaries, associates or joint ventures, are initially measured at fair value, which is normally the transaction price. Such assets are subsequently carried at fair value and the changes in fair value are recognised in profit or loss, except that investments in equity instruments that are not publicly traded and whose fair values cannot be measured reliably are measured at cost less impairment.
Financial assets, other than those held at fair value through profit and loss, are assessed for indicators of impairment at each reporting end date.
Financial assets are impaired where there is objective evidence that, as a result of one or more events that occurred after the initial recognition of the financial asset, the estimated future cash flows have been affected. If an asset is impaired, the impairment loss is the difference between the carrying amount and the present value of the estimated cash flows discounted at the asset’s original effective interest rate. The impairment loss is recognised in profit or loss.
If there is a decrease in the impairment loss arising from an event occurring after the impairment was recognised, the impairment is reversed. The reversal is such that the current carrying amount does not exceed what the carrying amount would have been, had the impairment not previously been recognised. The impairment reversal is recognised in profit or loss.
Financial assets are derecognised only when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the asset expire or are settled, or when the limited liability partnership transfers the financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to another entity, or if some significant risks and rewards of ownership are retained but control of the asset has transferred to another party that is able to sell the asset in its entirety to an unrelated third party.
Financial liabilities and equity instruments are classified according to the substance of the contractual arrangements entered into. An equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the limited liability partnership after deducting all of its liabilities.
Basic financial liabilities, including trade and other payables, bank loans, loans from fellow group companies and preference shares that are classified as debt, are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade payables are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade payables are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Derivatives, including interest rate swaps and forward foreign exchange contracts, are not basic financial instruments. Derivatives are initially recognised at fair value on the date a derivative contract is entered into and are subsequently re-measured at their fair value. Changes in the fair value of derivatives are recognised in profit or loss in finance costs or finance income as appropriate, unless hedge accounting is applied and the hedge is a cash flow hedge.
Debt instruments that do not meet the conditions in FRS 102 paragraph 11.9 are subsequently measured at fair value through profit or loss. Debt instruments may be designated as fair value through profit or loss to eliminate or reduce an accounting mismatch or if the instruments are measured and their performance evaluated on a fair value basis in accordance with a documented risk management or investment strategy.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the limited liability partnership’s obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
Equity instruments issued by the limited liability partnership are recorded at the proceeds received, net of direct issue costs. Dividends payable on equity instruments are recognised as liabilities once they are no longer at the discretion of the limited liability partnership.
The costs of short-term employee benefits are recognised as a liability and an expense, unless those costs are required to be recognised as part of the cost of stock or non-current assets.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the limited liability partnership is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
Transactions in currencies other than pounds sterling are recorded at the rates of exchange prevailing at the dates of the transactions. At each reporting end date, monetary assets and liabilities that are denominated in foreign currencies are retranslated at the rates prevailing on the reporting end date. Gains and losses arising on translation in the period are included in profit or loss.
In the application of the limited liability partnership’s accounting policies, the members are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Other key sources of estimation uncertainty:
Work in progress is valued at recoverable amounts based on time recorded, expected billing, fee arrangements, and historical recovery rates. The amount ultimately recoverable may differ from the estimate, as it depends on the outcome of ongoing matters and client billing discussions.
Bad debt provisions are made where the assessment of full recoverability of a debt is deemed to be uncertain. This is based on an assessment of each debtor, including the age of the debt, the contractual status of the customer, the length of the trading relationship and the trading status of the debtor.
The annual depreciation charge for tangible assets is sensitive to changes in the estimated useful economic lives and residual value of the assets. The useful economic lives and residual values are re-assessed annually. They are amended when necessary to reflect current estimates, based on technological advancement, future investments, economic utilisation and the physical condition of the assets.
An analysis of the limited liability partnership's revenue is as follows:
The average number of persons (excluding members) employed by the partnership during the year was:
Other receivables include a balance of £22,775 (2025: £22,775) due from a related party company. The balance represents an interest-free loan that is repayable on demand.
On the 23 July 2013 fixed and floating charges were secured over the assets of the Limited Liability Partnership in favour of Coutts & Company. the charge remains valid and is still in force as at the date of this report.
Included within other loans is £731,524 (2025: £145,165) in respect of loans secured by joint and several personal guarantees from members of the LLP and corporate guarantees and indemnities granted by Spencer West Global Limited, the LLP's parent undertaking, in favour of the lender
On 23 July 2013, fixed and floating charges were secured over the assets of the Limited Liability Partnership in favour of Coutts & Company. The charge remains valid and in force at the date of this report. At 31 March 2026, the loan balance outstanding was £5,000, which is due for repayment within one year.
In the event of a winding up the amounts included in "Loans and other debts due to members" will rank equally with unsecured creditors.
There are no restrictions or limitations of the members to reduce the amount of 'Members' other interests.
At the reporting end date the limited liability partnership had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, as follows:
During the year the Partnership incurred £1,614,905 (2025: £2,968,680) as a management charge and profits of £2,446,130 (2025: £1,476,173) were due to a company with significant control over the partnership.
The following amounts were outstanding at the reporting end date:
At the balance sheet date, the company owes the partners £2,660,506 (2025: £3,950,111). Within this balance is an amount of £2,559,259 (2025: £3,774,481) that is due to a parent undertaking.