The firm now employs more than 3,500 staff globally, including around 100 in Belfast and 70 in Dublin.

Over the past three years, it has achieved its target of 45 per cent of its legal director and partner promotion cohorts being women. More than half of its partners and legal directors in Belfast are women.

Ann Lalor, head of Pinsent Masons’ Dublin office, said: “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made in Dublin as we continue to build our sector-based offering. We now have a total of 12 partners in Dublin, with the addition of corporate partners Gerry Beausang and Neil Keenan.

“Furthermore, insurance lawyer Niall Campbell became the first Dublin-based lawyer to be promoted to legal director. We appointed Aoife Maguire as new global head of fund registrations and we had senior associate promotions across our energy, technology, IP and corporate teams.

“FY22 deal activity was positive and we’ve advised on a number of big-ticket mandates including advising investment fund business Baillie Gifford on its licensing agreement. We’ve had a positive start to the year advising on a number of high-profile projects such as Cathexis Holdings’ acquisition of Jones Engineering.”

Andrea McIlroy-Rose, partner and head of Pinsent Masons’ Belfast office, said: “Delivering good growth underpinned by healthy financial performance has led to a very encouraging FY21/22 financial year.

“Sector-led and commercial expertise combined with a blend of professional services skillsets and the use of process and technology has enabled us to advise on a number of high-profile purpose-led projects such as Ireland’s first ever energy storage project, the Equality Law group’s work with St Modwen to address gender imbalance across their business and our data trust work which seeks to harness the power of data to tackle societal issues such as food poverty.”

She added: “The Belfast office has also concentrated this year upon reviewing the remuneration and benefits packages we offer in order to attract and retain the best people and as a consequence of the change in working practices which has resulted from the pandemic.

“We have retained the real flexibility which the firm has always been known for, but conscious of the competition from Dublin and the rest of the UK to work in different locations, we have rebased our salaries beyond the local market levels to help encourage our talented people to remain in or return to NI.

“Along with the increased salaries, the firm offers a wide range of benefits from market leading health cover and mental health support to our maternity and family policies such as our new global family leave policy, which allows new parents to take up to 16 weeks fully paid leave. There is a wealth of talent in Northern Ireland and we are committed to encouraging as much growth and opportunity here as we can.”

Richard Foley, senior partner at Pinsent Masons, said: “The progress we have made in diversifying client services, improving representation across the legal profession, and taking action to do our part to address climate change are all testament to what can be achieved when broader measures of success are applied to a business.

“We, like many other organisations, aspire to do the right thing for our clients, people and communities, but what we have seen since we introduced our broader metrics three years ago, is that when we measure these things over time behaviours do change.

“Purposeful and profitable growth are a consequence of getting everything else right. We’ve made great strides over recent years and are delighted to see others in our industry do the same. It’s a reassuring signal of the direction of travel within the legal sector and Pinsent Masons has no intention of slowing the pace.”