Kearns: Principal focus is on organic growth
The law firm set up last year by a fast-growing accountancy consolidator has applied to become an alternative business structure (ABS) so as to expand its range of services.
Sumer Law, which has grown from two staff to nine, has also launched two fixed-cost services for SMEs.
The Sumer Group is a private equity-backed accountancy firm and now the 13th largest in the UK, despite only undertaking its first acquisition in 2023.
Turnover has grown by 605% since then and it now employs more than 2,300 professionals across 60 offices, with annual turnover of over £200m.
Backed by Penta Capital and BlackRock, it announced four deals for accountancy firms just this month.
James Kearns, the solicitor who heads Sumer Law, said the recruits since it launched have principally been corporate lawyers but, having proved that the model worked on unreserved activities, he had applied for an ABS licence so the firm can expand into commercial property and private client work. “We intend to continue to grow at a rapid rate,” he said.
Could acquisitions form part of the law firm’s strategy, as with the wider group? “Our principal focus is on organic growth, which has underpinned a remarkably strong first year for the firm,” he replied.
“We’re proud of the foundation we’ve laid, and we’re always thinking about how best to build on it.”
The “end goal” was that Sumer Law could service all of its partner accountants’ clients. “If you are a consumer of professional services, you want that slick onboarding service and all the professionals in a joined-up way under one roof.”
Almost all of Sumer Law’s work to date has been from such referrals but Mr Kearns said the two new products – the Legal Partner Subscription and the Employment Law Bundle – would help attract more external clients too.
The former is a business support package, starting at £1,950 + VAT a month, while the latter provides companies with the legal framework they need when employing staff.
Neither are especially novel in the legal world, and Mr Kearns explained that the goal was to break down the reluctance of SMEs to engage with lawyers because of cost, complexity or capacity.
“SMEs will put off engaging with lawyers, try and deal with it themselves and then bring in lawyers to survey the damage,” he said. “If we can engage with them early on, we can save them money.”
The aim was to develop a “proactive, trusted adviser relationship with our clients rather than a more reactive one, sitting and taking instructions”.
The Sumer Group’s strategy is to form regional hubs throughout the UK – there are 13 so far, including Sumer Law – with the hub partners maintaining leadership of their practices and retaining significant equity.
It says this shared ownership model means the firms preserve their local identity while benefiting from the scale and resources of a national group.
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