A new lease of life in law

Launched as recently as 2003, Keystone Law employs over 65 ex-city solicitors, has an annual turnover of £5m and boasts year-on-year expansion of 60 per cent. The cornerstone of its rapid growth has been a commitment to cultural change.

By James Knight, managing partner and founder, Keystone Law

Generally speaking, speed of growth in a law firm is dictated by the availability of new clients prepared to instruct that firm. More client work will, in turn, lead to the recruitment of additional fee-earners to carry it out.

We anticipated that Keystone Law, originally launched five years ago as Lawyers Direct, would be no different in this regard. We planned to take on more solicitors to meet what we hoped would be a growing client demand. What we had not appreciated was how many solicitors with good client contacts were actively looking to advise those clients in a new way. Fortunately for us, that new way was Keystone’s way.

It may be helpful to explain (briefly) how Keystone operates because, as a commercial law firm, this varies quite substantially. Rather than having its fee-earners working together under one roof, the solicitors each operate from their own ‘satellite’ offices, which are usually located in the home. Rather than paying fixed salaries, fee-earners receive as much as 80 per cent of the fees once paid. A central London office, staffed by eight employees, handles all the firm’s administration, compliance and marketing, and offers excellent meeting room facilities. Some sophisticated technology also helps to ensure the firm functions in a way that is no less cohesive and seamless than a conventional law firm.

However, the saving on overhead that flows from this unique structure is passed onto clients so that hourly rates are considerably lower than the norm. While this is certainly accepted with enthusiasm by potential clients, the real driving force for growth has come from solicitors who require the support of a conventional law firm, but who also seek flexibility and a certain amount of autonomy from their working life. Demand for this way of working has led to hundreds of applications a year from experienced solicitors, which has helped us to build a strong team of solicitors with first-rate legal backgrounds. Nowadays these solicitors must all have a client following – or a genuine and realistic desire to create one.

What does all this say about prevailing attitudes within the legal profession? To be honest, I can only speak for commercial solicitors – and ones with over five years post-qualification experience at that. But what I hear several times a week is a
desire to exchange long hours, management meetings, office politics, billing targets and commuting, for family time, sporting interests, flexible working, and the law. Yes! More than anything, solicitors join the firm so they can practice what they trained so hard to do, free from the distractions that come hand in hand with life at a more conventional law firm. So ironically, for a firm that offers the ultimate in flexible working, with no billing targets whatsoever, 75 per cent of new joiners are looking to work full days, all week long.

You might be forgiven for assuming that the driving forces set out above would not equally apply to law firm partners, but surprisingly this is not the case. Ex-partners that join Keystone are particularly keen to say goodbye to administration and management in favour of a business model where this is all
taken care of. And partnership itself, hitherto regarded as the
‘Holy Grail’ of career success, now appears to be less attractive to many suitable and worthy contenders. Senior associates contemplating the ‘push for partnership’ often describe it as ‘a bit more money and a lot more stress’, and consequently decide it is not for them.

Many of the aspirations mentioned have been highlighted in the legal press before. The desire for flexible working and a work/life balance is a hot topic, and we know that demand is strong. The high level of solicitor turnover in the City firms has been widely reported. But it is the sheer number of solicitors now looking to practice law away from the conventional law firm that never ceases to amaze those working with me. Whether this wind of change will lessen or increase in a difficult economic climate remains to be seen. But as I write this having just finished a busy August week, that wind seems to be as strong as ever.

James Knight is managing partner of Keystone Law. He can be contacted at: james.knight@keystonelaw.co.uk