Mishcon de Reya spent nearly £12m last year on its plans to float on the stock exchange, which have since been put on hold ‘for the foreseeable future’.

The London firm spent more than a year exploring an initial public offering, which was overwhelmingly approved by partners and had the potential to create the most valuable legal business on the London market, before it indefinitely shelved the idea in June due to ‘market conditions’.

Mishcon incurred expenses of £11.7m – including £2.6m payable to auditors and a ‘provision against loan’ of almost £5.9m – in the year ending 9 April ‘relating to the preparation for a potential listing on the London Stock Exchange’, according to its audited results.

Its annual report states: ‘Whilst some of these costs will continue into the next accounting period, they are not expected to be a recurring charge in future periods.’

Mishcon also said that last year’s performance ‘exceeded the group’s financial forecasts’, adding: ‘The group continues to generate cash through its strong level of ongoing activity and continued pipeline of new cases and recurring engagements’.

The firm, which announced last month that revenue was up by 22% to £230.7m, also saw a 1% increase in profit before members’ remuneration to £76.7m and a 2% increase in operating profit to £75.2m, according to its results.

Its top earner drew £2.1m last year, a slight increase from just over £2m the previous year, while its ‘key management personnel’ shared £17.1m, up from £16.3m. The firm said earlier this year that average profit per equity partner had increased by 11% to £1.05m.

Meanwhile, Mishcon today announced that it has hired Paul Clements-Hunt – a former United Nations official credited with coining the term ESG in 2004 – as a director of its Purpose offering, which it described as ‘a specialist sustainability business integrating lawyers and environmental, social and governance experts’.