Kindleworth has helped launch more than 50 legal businesses since it was established in 2012. From its first role on the launch of Signature Litigation, it has gone on to work on other notable launches including Three Crowns, Pallas Partners and sports boutique Northridge.
Here, CEO and co-founder James Hacking and strategy and commercial partner Michael Estill tell LB what sets its offering apart.
Why did you launch Kindleworth?
Hacking: ‘I grew up at entrepreneurial firms like SJ Berwin and Olswang. I was in a COO role when I began to think there was a gap in the market for a new multi-disciplinary consultancy. In 2010, four of us came together, combining experiences as CEO, CFO, COO, BD and Risk & Compliance and, within a couple of years, having won some fascinating projects, we formed Kindleworth in 2012.
‘When we’d been in-house at our firms, and looking for consultancy support for certain projects, there was a bit of a gap. You could go to specialists for each segment, but there wasn’t one organisation that could span all projects. And that’s where we started.’
What does a typical Kindleworth launch look like?
Hacking: ‘What our clients have in common is that they are typically the go-to individuals for their own clients; highly ranked and highly rated lawyers. Their clients are loyal to the partners and tend to follow them from Day 1. Consequently, our clients can build firms quickly.’
How does Kindleworth help with a launch?
Hacking: ‘We often meet clients at an early stage in their thinking. They may have a vision for doing something differently, perhaps with an ideal client and talent base in mind, for example, but they haven’t got much further. We lead clients through those very early stages, spending time helping them design and test the potential new firm; how it would be positioned, with what initial team and through what build process.
‘When we are all happy to proceed, we do everything it takes to open a business on Day 1, from acquiring funding and insurance, establishing the corporate entity and dealing with all regulatory and tax issues, to branding, recruiting the team, building their new IT environment and securing premises. And then, once it’s up-and-running, we provide all the back-office functions you’d expect: HR, finance, compliance, IT, operations and strategy.
‘What we are really selling is a business partnership: Senior, advisory support across the CFO, COO, and other C-level functional roles. We hold our partners’ hands through all aspects of building, running and growing sophisticated law firms. We help them think about their strategic direction; regularly providing financial scenario models, assessing risks and opportunities, how they are differentiating, attracting and developing talent and so on.’
What practice areas do you think are ripe for more boutique launches?
Estill: ‘We think there is increasing opportunity for scaled specialist firms and not just in disputes or niche advisory services. I don’t see any reason why we could not see a specialist firm in the lower mid-market corporate space for example. The step change in technology and the interest that private capital has in the legal market means you could do a really punchy tech enabled launch with at least 10 to 15 top tier partners today. And that’s immensely exciting, and something that may not have been possible even a couple of years ago.’
How is AI changing your offering?
Estill: ‘In any engagement with AI, you need to think not only about the technology but also how you’re going to price, because of its relationship with resourcing requirements. The implications are very much central to wider management of the firm and service delivery.
‘We should also be helping our clients understand what to prioritise and when. If one reads the press, you’d assume everyone’s AI-led now, and the reality is not that.’
And how do you think it will change the future of boutiques?
Estill: ‘It’s much easier to do an AI-first firm when you’re starting from scratch than to try to reengineer an existing firm. So, we’re hoping it leads to more, to bigger, and to more ambitious launches, where you’ve got capital to finance some of that tech, and you have got the tech to enable change.’
Do you think there are going to be more boutique launches in future or fewer? Why?
Estill: ‘I think we’re going to see more spinouts. We’re going to see more groups of scale, international players in the global elite territory who want to focus on their clients and think more strategically about the areas they want to be in, and, crucially, the areas they don’t want to be in. This will lead to a proliferation of elite boutiques, or scale specialist firms.
‘But lawyers are inherently conservative people so I doubt there will be an exodus of people charging for the door.’
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