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Beaumont: Culture more oriented towards that of a traditional law firm

A consultant-run law firm founded shortly before Covids’ strike said lawyers “reflection” during the lockdown on what they wanted from their lives and careers helped their expansion.

Anna Beaumont, co-founder and co-executive director of Bexley Beaumont, said the firm provided lawyers with “a fair and ethical way of working where they are rewarded directly but still feel part of a team”.

Bexley Beaumont opened in January 2020 and has achieved its first year goal by bringing 18 partners on board, all of whom are independent consultants. Two more were added in March.

A report last week predicted that law firms would be poised for tremendous growth and become the dominant business model in the consolidation of high street and middle class.

Ms. Beamount, a former executive director of leading consulting firm gunnercooke, said the growth of her law firm had shown that some lawyers were looking for a different type of legal practice.

“We expect more fee sharing companies to be set up over the next few years to give lawyers and clients more choices, which can only be beneficial for the industry.”

She said she preferred the Hybrid label to Virtual for the company as it has offices in Manchester and plans to open a second collaborative hub in London by the end of the year, likely followed by Birmingham.

She expected that there would be 28 to 30 partners by the end of this year and around 40 partners by the end of 2022.

Ms. Beaumont said the corporate culture sets her apart from other fee equity advisor-run companies.

“It’s not the company’s day-to-day work that keeps me up at night, it’s the team culture,” she said.

Ms. Beaumont said the partners met online at least once a week and the company invested a lot of time organizing online social events, such as a meeting with a manager at Harrods.

“People want to know how the company is doing and get to know their colleagues, which ultimately benefits our customers.

“Our culture is one of the reasons we are different and is more like that of a traditional law firm than any other fee-sharing law firm. There is a real willingness and desire to support one another. “

Ms. Beaumont said that when allowed, the partners went for walks with up to six people.

She also walked to keep in touch with co-founder and co-managing director Karen Bexley.

“We spent a lot of time together on the business plan before launch,” said Ms. Beaumont. “It’s important to make sure we still feel connected.”

Ms. Beaumont said the first national lockdown was quieter than it is now in terms of both workload and new partners, and right now there is far more going on in corporate and real estate work.

“I think 2020 gave some lawyers time to think about their careers and that was part of the reason why we were growing.”

She said some lawyers were now “looking forward to getting back to the office” at the third national lockdown, but what was needed has likely turned into more of a “collaborative center”.

The firm employed two paralegals and, in due course, aimed to have one on each of its four teams, along with junior lawyers “when the time was right”.

Ms. Beaumont added that many lawyers did not want to be part of the largest law firms.

She said that in some ways she was “trying to recreate one of the fantastic boutique law firms from 15 to 20 years ago,” many of which had been taken over by major law firms.