The record partner profits come after Linklaters’ revenues jumped 16 per cent to £935 million in the 2005-06 financial year on the back of a continuing global boom in mergers and acquisitions and private equity-related work.

Slaughter and May, the smallest of the five so-called Magic Circle law firms, is Linklaters’ closest rival with 90 partners earning £1 million or more last year, according to research published today in The Lawyer.

Allen & Overy, another Magic Circle firm, is third with 85 partners breaking through the million-pound barrier.

The Lawyer estimates that 392 London-based solicitors earned packages of £1 million or more last year as Europe’s mergers and acquisitions market enjoyed its strongest year since 1999.

The survey did not mention the numbers of million pound partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer or Clifford Chance, the other two members of the Magic Circle.

When measured as a proportion of total equity partners Slaughter and May has the largest number of million-pound earners, with 75 per cent of its equity partnership taking home £1 million or more last year.

That dwarfs the equivalent figures at Linklaters, where 35 per cent of equity partners earned £1 million, and Allen & Overy, with 25 per cent reaching the million-pound mark.

Equity partners are different from salaried partners because they are entitled to a share of their firm’s annual profits. The level of profits each partner receives varies widely according to several factors, including how much business they have brought in, length of service and whether the partners take on managerial responsibilities in addition to their regular work.

The figures in The Lawyer survey are based on the magazine’s research and have not been verified by the individual firms.

Linklaters declined to comment.

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