| 19/09/2021 6:47
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The coronavirus has broken with all the schemes and even today, more than a year and a half after the declaration of a global pandemic, it is very difficult to make certain interpretations. For example, the legal sector seems to have overcome resistance to acknowledging its exposure to the current situation, but the evolution of each firm seems to depend more on external factors than on the internal strategy itself, conjunctural in many cases.
One of the firms that is being able to tiptoe over the economic crisis is ARPA Lawyers Consultants. The firm of Navarre origin closed last year with a turnover of 6.4 million euros, which represents an increase of 2.6% compared to 2019.
Of this figure, 5.6 million euros correspond to the main company and 874,921 euros to ARPA Accounting, its subsidiary dedicated to accounting and payroll activity for small companies and freelancers. Precisely, the latter has just incorporated José Javier ALberca as director within the framework of a plan to promote, modernize and digitize the entity.
This positive evolution, slightly above the average increase of 1.6% registered by business lawyers last year, allows us to continue the trend that began a few years ago. The firm has been growing gradually since 2014, when it declared revenues of 4.3 million euros.
Among the factors that explain this slow, although constant, progress, it is worth highlighting its multidisciplinary nature and the impulse that opened an office in Madrid at the beginning of 2018. In fact, since that year it has maintained its turnover above 6 million euros, even in an adverse context such as the present.
Despite these records, ARPA was not immune to the effects of the coronavirus. Proof of this is that, in order to obtain the necessary oxygen to guarantee its liquidity, it chose to access the financing framework provided by the Official Credit Institute (ICO).
As stated in its latest economic report, the firm formalized a loan worth 700,0000 euros with credit institutions, as have competitors of all sizes within the legal sector itself. At the end of June, Spanish law firms had requested almost 100 million euros in long-term loans with guarantees from the ICO.
Regarding billing per professional, ARPA, with eighty lawyers in its ranks, presents an average of 80,372 euros in 2020. During the past year, its staff of lawyers increased by 1.3% and the total number of employees by 2.2%, which amounted to 93 at the end of the year. The company allocated 4 million euros to payroll and social security.
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