Technology and outsourcing boutique Radiant Law is making good on its ambitions to shake up traditionally conservative forms of providing legal services after revealing revenues of £3m for the 2013/14 financial year, doubling on the previous year, while chief executive Alex Hamilton has further plans to double lawyer headcount by 2017.
Established in early 2011 by a group of breakaway partners from Big Law firms including Hamilton from Latham & Watkins, Andy Giverin from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, and David Skinner from Morrison & Foerster, the firm claims to take an innovative approach to legal services due to its preference for fixed fees and shunning hourly rates.
With the firm boasting clients on the roster including Deutsche Bank and UPS, and having already grown staff numbers from 8 to 30 over 2013/14, chief executive Hamilton told Legal Business the team will continue to expand: ‘We’re going to grow aggressively. We’re very focused on high volume commercial contracts. We’ll continue to be focused and innovate within that area. And we’re hiring all the time – I expect our numbers to increase significantly … we’re going to at least double in size over the next couple of years.’
Major strategic investment already made by the firm included the launch of a South African office in Cape Town last March together with the addition of new outsourcing chief and former RPC legal director Andy Sutherland in London. The firm also installed former Mothercare managing director Greg Tufnell as minority shareholder and non-executive chairman in June last year after becoming an alternative business structure.
Other models demonstrating similar success includes Keystone Law, Axiom, and Temple Bright. Keystone successfully converted to an ABS in 2013 while turnover increased from £12.2m in 2013 to £14.1m in 2014. It further turned to boutique private equity house Root Capital to fund its growth plans and launched outside of the UK with Keypoint Law in Australia. Axiom meanwhile entered into a three-year contract with BT in February last year to provide legal support services across the UK, US, Africa, Middle East and Asia, replacing a contract formerly held by legal process outsourcing provider UnitedLex.
Hamilton believes the trend is set to continue: ‘You’ve got a clear shake up going on in law where lots of people have a perfectly good practices but are getting fed up and the boutique option becomes attractive. You also have the rising parallel to boutiques of platforms that support one-man-band practices. Mega firms keep growing and shaking out less profitable areas in that never ending march towards bet the company work, so you’ll have more individuals looking elsewhere.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk