Top-performing partners at Linklaters will earn £1.62 million this year after the City law firm boosted revenues by 20 per cent to a record £1.1 billion.

Average profits per equity partner - equal to total profits divided by the number of partners who own a share in the firm - rose 21.5 per cent to £1.29 million.

Partner pay varies according to seniority and performance, but profits of £490 million for the year to April 30 means that first-year equity partners will earn £647,000 and the most senior partners will pocket £1.62 million.

Revenues jumped from £935 million to £1.121 billion - within a whisker of arch rival Clifford Chance, the world's biggest law firm by turnover, which reported preliminary revenues of £1,194 in May. Clifford Chance is expected to finalise its accounts next month.

Tony Angel, Linklaters managing partner, said that the firm had increasingly focused on complex transactions and cross-border work.

Mr Angel, who steps down in December, said that 65 per cent of revenues was due to deals involving more than one office compared with only 40 per cent three years ago.

He added that revenues had increased across the majority of practice areas but highlighted mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and private equity as standout performers last year.

Linklaters, like other leading law firms, has enjoyed significant growth in work on the back of the continuing global M&A and private equity boom.

Mr Angel said that the firm, one of London’s five “magic circle” elite legal practices, planned to continue growing in Asia and the US but would avoid mass hiring and “growth for growth’s sake”.

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