The group, which is one of the pioneers and market leaders amongst firms operating a legal consultancy model, now has over 1,300 members of its legal consultant programme, of which 921 are fee earners, compared to 162 fee earners in May 2020.
AIIC says the model has a lot of room for growth, with currently only around 2,500 lawyers working as consultants across the four main consultancy-focused law firms in England & Wales, from a solicitor population of 171,000, in addition to other legal professionals such as licenced conveyancers and legal executives.
A recent report by LexisNexis showed that by 2026, 33% of UK lawyers could become consultant lawyers.
With the majority of UK CEOs expecting companies to shift towards a full return to office work within the next two or three years1, discontented experienced professionals seeking to retain flexibility for their work-life balance could drive an acceleration in consultants.
The majority of AIIC’s consultants operate under the Taylor Rose brand, the group’s longest-established business, which also has an employed division, with staff operating across sectors such as property, including conveyancing; private client; family; and criminal law.
FDR Law and Kingsley Wood were both launched in 2024 and have so far grown the membership of their consultant programmes to over 100 between them. FDR Law was relaunched last year as a property-focused legal services business that operates solely under the consultancy model, as does Kingsley Wood, a corporate-focused law firm.
The legal consultant business model offers lawyers a central service platform, brand, management and compliance infrastructure from which to operate, in return for a percentage of the lawyer’s revenue. The lawyers themselves are self-employed consultants, who retain an average of 70 per cent of their billings, with the remainder taken by the consultancy firm.
The consultancy model has grown as lawyers seek the flexibility, better work-life balance and lower costs of being able to work from home. It is proving particularly appealing to experienced lawyers, for whom – as well as flexibility – it can enable them to increase their income and employ their own sub-consultants and support staff, without the administrative burden of running their own firm or compliance challenges such as PI insurance that are expensive and increasingly difficult to secure for small firms.
AIIC says 60% of its consultants are experienced professionals over the age of 40, and 90% choose to work from home.
The group has invested heavily in technology and central support services to enhance the working experience and productivity of consultants and enable them to focus on earning fees. It is currently introducing a fully cloud-based practice management platform built on market-leading Salesforce technology, already in operation in FDR Law, that will further enhance productivity and service levels.
It also says the earning potential of its consultants, and therefore recruitment, have been aided by its referral network – helped by Taylor Rose’s hybrid model, which sees work referred between employed staff and consultants – and access to lender panels in the conveyancing market in which it is one of the market leaders.
Adrian Jaggard, CEO of the AIIC Group, said: “Legal consultancy is a fast-growing area of the market for us that is gaining momentum. It is an increasingly viable and attractive way for experienced lawyers to work, and a proven model to help us drive growth, which is why we have continued to invest in our consultant platform and our ability to attract and retain top consultant talent. There is a lot of room for the consultancy market to keep growing strongly and we are well-positioned to be at the forefront of that growth across all our legal services businesses.”
AIIC recorded revenues of £97.3m (+16%) in the financial year ending 30th September 2024.
