Bristol-headquartered national law firm Burges Salmon is to repay the furlough grants it received from the government at height of the coronavirus pandemic.
The firm, which employs more than 800 people in its Bristol HQ and London and Edinburgh offices, said it had decided to take the action following a detailed financial review and forecasting exercise. 
The move comes two weeks after Burges Salmon secured a double win at the prestigious British Legal Awards 2020
The firm was named UK Law Firm of the Year and Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year at the awards, which were staged virtually by The Legal Week.
Burges Salmon said over the spring and summer, in response to the high degree of market uncertainty, it placed a number of employees on furlough in roles that were most affected by the impact of Covid-19.
The roles impacted were in its business services teams, such as front of house, travel co-ordinators, events management and PAs.
It said using the scheme enabled it to achieve the key priority of retaining all of its people during this difficult period.
But it added that its performance during the first half of the year was stronger than anticipated and its forecasting suggests greater confidence in the pipeline of work for the second half of the year, which will include a continued focus on driving new work in its chosen sectors and specialisms.
Burges Salmon managing partner Roger Bull, pictured, said: “Having undertaken a detailed financial review and forecasting exercise of the first six months of 2020, our firm is now in a stronger than anticipated position with a greater degree of confidence about the future.
“On that basis, it has been decided that the firm will repay the funds we received from the furlough scheme in December. We are very grateful to have had access to the furlough scheme but as we are in a better position than we anticipated, we are pleased to be able to repay it.”
The UK Law Firm of the Year title was awarded to Burges Salmon as a result of an ambitious three-year growth strategy introduced by its new leadership team in 2018 which maintained its independence underpinned by a distinctive culture.
The first two years of this plan resulted in the successful delivery of a number of the firm’s key goals including increased revenue from a range of key sector groups and core practices, creating a unique client proposition in Scotland, innovating around client service, delivering a client-led international model, driving responsible business, prioritising diversity and inclusion and focusing on talent-development.
Over the past year the firm has been appointed by some of the UK’s largest organisations due to what it called a relentless focus on client delivery and the implementation of a sector approach.
In winning the Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year title, the firm was recognised for its work advising Transport for Wales and the Welsh Government on the transfer of the Core Valley Lines railway network from Network Rail to TfW, and the installation of Amey/Keolis as its new infrastructure manager.
Led by transport and infrastructure sector partners Brioney Thomas and Philip Beer, the team advised on all legal aspects of this ground-breaking project including rail regulations, commercial contracts, real estate, pensions, employment, health & safety and environmental issues.
