Revenue on course to top £1m for family law firm

The Berkson team

Turnover at a Liverpool legal practice  is set to soar by upwards of 60% to more than £1m while staffing levels have almost doubled to 15 in its drive to reinforce its niche status in family law.

Berkson Family Law Solicitors was established in the 1930s and has now embarked on an exciting growth phase, following the retirement from the practice of long-standing partner Valerie Limont.

Remaining directors Charles Peter and Adele Schofield used the opportunity to raise £178,000 in funding to buy out the retiring partner, who remains as a consultant, and to recruit six new staff to its existing nine-strong team.

Peter said the influx of new staff will strengthen the firm’s brand and reputation in family law, particularly in divorce mediation, and could lead to further growth following a healthy jump in income that has seen a 61% increase in turnover, compared with the same period last year.

He said: “I expect turnover to increase even more, further down the line. Almost doubling in size is a good start, and if the brand continues to generate, as it has done, we will have to find more people.”

He added: “In Liverpool there’s lots of practices who will bury you or buy your house, but most of them are general practitioners, whereas we only do family law, and don’t do anything else, so in attracting all the best practitioners – because we’re niche they wanted to come to us – I can see us being very prominent.”

The firm, which is in the top 20 in its field in the UK, aims to focus more on the professional sector.

“We are trying to attract more private work, and we now have the team that can work exclusively with high net worth divorces. We could not do that before, but now we have that expertise,” said Peter.

“We want people to understand that this is all we do, and we do it very well, and now we have been able to expand and bring in more expertise.”

The expansion follows a funding package arranged by West Kirby financial specialist Bathgate Business Finance, who had liaised with Mike Buxton at the client’s accountant Mitchell Charlesworth, to facilitate a £145,000 loan, through RateSetter over five years, and a personal loan for £33,000 over the same period, through Braemar Finance.

Peter said Bathgate provided an ideal solution: “We needed to buy out our retiring partner and grow the business at the same time. I needed a source of funding that would allow me to continue growing the business both in public and private law.

“I could not have done this without Bathgate Business Finance, because I could only refinance with the bank,” he said.
Paul Trickett, business development manager with Bathgate Business Finance, said: “We were delighted to assist with some alternative funding to this progressive law practice.”

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