Garrigues, the first EU law firm to break the €450 million revenue barrier

Garrigues posted global revenues of €454.27 million in 2023, up 2.51% on the previous year. These record figures make Garrigues the first law firm in the EU to break the €450 million revenue barrier, following ten years of uninterrupted growth.

In Spain, the firm’s revenue amounted to €396.7 million, on the back of 2.72% growth. The international business represents 13% of billings.

Garrigues increased revenue across all practice areas during the year. Corporate and M&A continues to be largest contributor to revenues, accounting for 32%, followed by Tax (30.3%), Dispute Resolution: Litigation and Arbitration (11.8%), Labor and Employment (11.3%) and Administrative and Constitutional Law (8.2%).

“In a year marked by the global geopolitical crisis and political and institutional instability in many of the countries in which the firm operates, Garrigues has remained true to its philosophy of solid and profitable growth, controlling expenses and investing in strategic areas, while at the same time making major strides in terms of our future, particularly as regards digitalization,” said Fernando Vives, executive chairman of Garrigues.

2023 was a key year for Garrigues in strategic aspects such as sustainability and digitalization. The launch of the 2023-2025 Sustainability Plan, which embeds ESG considerations into all areas of the firm’s activity, marked a major milestone. The Plan contains 12 lines of action based around specific environmental, social and governance objectives. As regards environmental aspects (E), in 2023 100% of the electricity consumed by the law firm’s European offices came from renewable sources, and 100% of scope 1 and scope 2 CO₂ emissions were offset, among other achievements. In social terms (S), the firm continued to make progress in equality: of the total workforce (2,187 people), 51% are women; 49% of new hires in the year were women; and 50% of those promoted to partner were women. With respect to governance (G), new policies were added to the firm’s internal regulations, such as the policy on the use of generative AI.

Digital transformation of the firm: investment and progress

Another highlight of 2023 was the progress made in terms of the firm’s digital transformation, in which the firm has invested €64 million over the past five years. Garrigues has developed its own generative artificial intelligence platform, Garrigues GAIA, providing all its professionals with access to different internally trained models that are also fully integrated with commercial models that have been enriched to adapt their behavior, with embedding of key data and vectorization of document management systems, enabling them to utilize all available internal and external information and documentation in their day-to-day work. Over 150 Garrigues professionals have been involved in the development of this inhouse platform, a clear example of Garrigues’ digital strategy, based on multidisciplinary collaboration between lawyers and technologists, with the consequent improvement in the development of technology to support the traditional business.

Acquisition of a stake in EAD Trust and first products 

In addition to technologies focusing on the firm’s activity, in the past year Garrigues has taken significant steps through its digital business division, a technological environment that allows for the launch of products and services related to digital trust, the growing digitalization of contracts and the emerging digital asset ecosystem. The acquisition last May of a controlling stake in EADTrust, a qualified trust service provider registered with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, will allow the firm to harness digital trust technologies. The first product is GoCertius, an application that allows to “certify” videos, images and any type of electronic file by attaching a qualified timestamp that means the file can be submitted as evidence with the maximum legal effect stipulated by the legislation in force.

2023 also marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of Garrigues’ New York office, which marked the beginning of the international expansion of the firm and of the Spanish legal profession. Garrigues is today the largest law firm in the EU, with 30 offices in 12 countries across 4 continents.