Padmore: Property law lends itself to consultancy
FDR Law, a general practice bought by Taylor Rose in 2021, has been relaunched as a specialist property law firm for self-employed consultants.
Gina Padmore, new chief executive of FDR Law, said there was “plenty of space” for FDR Law to operate as a virtual, fee-share firm alongside Taylor Rose, which has a strong conveyancing practice with its branch network.
Taylor Rose – it has recently dropped the ‘MW’ suffix – also already operates one of the largest fee-share practices in the country, including many property lawyers. Another member of the wider AIIC group is Kingsley Wood, a standalone fee-share practice based in London with 20 lawyers.
Ms Padmore said: “Property law lends itself to consultancy. I can’t see a future where it is not the preferred option for property lawyers.”
Property law consultants already at Taylor Rose can choose if they want to transfer across to FDR – 21 have done so far, led by Mustafa Hassan, now head of commercial property and the other director of FDR Law.
Taylor Rose bought FDR Law, based in Warrington, in July 2021. At the time FDR Law had 55 staff offering a broad range of private client and business law services across the North-West.
Ms Padmore said the existing staff of FDR moved across to Taylor Rose, which opened a new office in Warrington, while trading was “paused” at FDR for an IT “transformation”.
Formerly head of legal at Taylor Rose, she said she had spent over a year working on FDR’s case management system and IT infrastructure, which would be “completely distinct”.
FDR uses a cloud-based case management system called Nebulaw, built on the Salesforce platform, with automated workflows to help fee-earners complete conflict checks, risk assessments and identity checks.
The system can be accessed by fee-earners on any device, including a mobile phone, and by housing all the data in one place, aims to increase productivity for consultants and central support departments.
Consultants use a central service platform, brand and management infrastructure, and retain an average of 70% of their billings.
Ms Padmore said FDR Law would operate nationally, though it had some “brand legacy” which would be a benefit in the North-West.
FDR has no high street presence and was “very technology-focused”. There are no targets for how many new lawyers would be recruited this year, but the model was “quickly scaleable”, Ms Padmore said.
A head of audit had recently been appointed, and would soon be followed by an onboarding executive.
“We know we can grow fees under the consultancy model if the IT is right. Property law lends itself to consultancy work more than other areas.”
The plan is that FDR will have its own culture and strategy, and that its narrower focus, along with the technology, will appeal to some consultants independent of Taylor Rose.
She said there was “lots of growth potential” in a fragmented conveyancing market, leaving “ample room for challenger firms”.
Most fee-share law firms have multiple practice areas but there are at least two other specialist property ones – Davitt Jones Bould and Amity Law.
Ms Padmore described consultancy work as “quite female-orientated” and “works nicely for those who want a work-life balance”.
Adrian Jaggard, chief executive of Taylor Rose and the AIIC Group, added: “We know the factors that are key to driving excellence and fast-growth with a consultancy-based business, and the team have been working hard behind the scenes to put the right building blocks in place to support FDR’s relaunch.”
Taylor Rose adopted the suffix ‘MW’ following its acquisition of McMillan Williams four years ago, a deal that supercharged its growth.
Mr Jaggard said: “Our new simplified name better reflects the unity of the entire company as we continue to adapt and drive growth in our key areas of focus such as property, private client, dispute resolution and corporate commercial.”
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