Britain's top law firms began releasing their first-half results this week and early signs suggested that the astonishing growth of recent years has come to an end.

Ashurst, the largest firm to announce its results today, revealed that it had earned fee income of £158 million in the six months to October 31 — an increase of 7.5 per cent on the same period last year.

In contrast, the firm reported a full-year increase of 17 per cent to £323 million in July.

Geoffrey Green, Ashurst's senior partner, said it was a "creditable" rise despite the firm's strength in private equity and finance — two of the practice areas most affected by the financial crisis.

The results were bolstered by strong performance in energy, project finance, litigation and from its offices in the Middle East, Tokyo and Singapore, Mr Green said.

However, he cautioned that the outlook for the rest of the year was "very uncertain and very challenging".

Mr Green added: "If you are positioned in the right part of the market you'll be okay. But there's going to be a lot of fallout for law firms from what's happening to their clients and we just don't know where things will end up."

Norton Rose, boosted by busy litigation and regulation practices and its operations in the Middle East, posted a healthy 11 per cent rise in first-half revenue to £141.5 million.

That was narrowly beaten by Simmons & Simmons at £143.5 million, although Simmons' turnover grew by only 5.5 per cent against the same period last year.

Addleshaw Goddard announced that fee income was down 2.8 per cent for the first half, at £94.7 millon. Mark Jones, its managing partner, said: "These are unusual times and the harsh climate remains a real challenge for the whole business community."

Halliwells, the Manchester-based firm, increased first-half revenue 4.8 per cent to £44 million. Trowers & Hamlins reported a strong first-half performance with revenue of £42 million, up 16 per cent.

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