Blog

New breed of regulation agency consultancy reworking the market | Information

Helen Miles, Gunnercooke

After so many retailers, the irony was not lost when Amazon recently announced it was opening physical stores. This ultimate disruptor had come full circle.

There are parallels to the advisory model of law firms, which experts say is on the verge of permanently breaking the hegemony of traditional practice. While many of these are based on lawyers working remotely, a significant number have also opened bases in city centers to create a hybrid model that appeals to lawyers who are nervous about abandoning the office environment for good.

A consulting firm, gunnercooke, opened an office at WeWorks’ Birmingham facility, under consideration of Helen Miles. The Midlands-based pension attorney with 25 years of experience in the sector was lured by Squire Patton Boggs last summer. Miles named the flexible model of gunnercooke as one of the biggest attractions.

“I’m a pretty independent person and I like to work that way. I’m a businessman, not just a lawyer,” said Miles. “We have an office in the city center and I look forward to going in [when the restrictions are lifted]. There is remote work in the company, but also remote team ties, and the company really tries. It’s a balance – sometimes you want to see people, but working from home is better than working in an open plan office. ‘

There is remote work in the company, but also remote team ties, and the company really tries. It’s a balance – sometimes you want to see people, but working from home is better than working in an open plan office

Helen Miles, Gunnercooke

Miles is not alone. A report by investment bank Arden Partners last month suggested that within five years, a third of lawyers could be working on an advisory model.

John Llewellyn-Lloyd, head of business services at Arden, said there is a chance an existing disruptor or even a new entrant has 10,000 attorneys on their books. This might be possible for a so-called traditional company, but that would require the partnership model to adjust at an unusual rate, he said.

Gunnercooke, Setfords, Excello Law, and Keystone have emerged as rivals rather than curiosities of the legal establishment in recent years. Keystone and Gunnercooke both belong to or near the top 100 companies based on revenue, and many are backed by private equity or stock market investments. Their model largely centralizes back office operations and allows lawyers to act flexibly as advisors and retain some of the fees they bring in rather than as equity partners.

Those who may have made fun of this model in the past have worked like consulting lawyers for a year, but without many benefits. Paul Bennett, a partner at the consulting firm Bennett Briegal, said many attorneys will already be planning when to resign once the offices are open again.

“I don’t think the traditional law firm with the people chained to the desk was attractive even before Covid,” Bennett said. “Now it’s about working in a new and different way. We will see in the next 18 months that the number of people who want to work differently outside of the office – either as consultants or through a traditional company that has recalibrated itself – will change on the order of the “industrial revolution”. Covid has totally changed the landscape.

“It used to be the uncomfortable bunch that didn’t fit into being a consultant. Now we’re talking about high profile lawyers with a large client who act according to their needs, not those of the firm. ‘

Llewellyn-Lloyd agrees that the pandemic played a large part in this surge, but not just to encourage lawyers to find new ways of working.

“Covid has shown clients in one fell swoop that their lawyer can work this way,” he said. “Then it comes down to the cost. This model allows them to work at a cheaper cost as the whole operation is about the efficiency of a central office. ‘

While law firms can attract senior attorneys provided they can work more independently, there are concerns about the pipeline of junior attorneys who may not be suitable for advisory work. Gunnercooke is tackling this problem, among other things, with a program specially designed for emerging talent.

Manda Banerji, chair of the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division, said that its members, as they approach the five-year PQE, value flexibility and better work-life balance, but stressed the importance of looking into what oversight is available will be.

It remains to be seen how traditional companies will address this emerging threat. In the ongoing discussion about when and how often lawyers return to offices, the bigger question is whether some will return at all.