gunnerCooke launches consulting business
A GROUP of senior executives with experience across a range of diciplines have teamed up to form a consulting business.
gunnercooke Consulting, which includes experienced private equity investor John Walker – a founding partner of Equistone – and Mike McGrath the former commercial director of Speedy Hire, is majority owned by the new model law firm gunnercooke, founded in Manchester by corporate lawyer Darryl Cooke in 2010.
It has launched with 12 consultants, and that number is set to grow to 20 by the end of the year, Cooke told TheBusinessDesk.
Like the law firm, which now has more than 75 partners and offices in London as well as Manchester, gunnercooke Consulting offers a fixed-fee model.
Cooke said: “Our legal model sought to break the mould by abolishing hourly time sheets and allowing lawyers to focus on the clients, and we are looking to do the same with the consulting business.
“We have 12 really experienced people, who have been there and done it, and who can add real value and provide genuine expertise.”
Three of the consultants, Mike McGrath Ian Turmeau and Simon Horsfield, also have shares in gunnercooke Consulting, he said.
Cooke, who worked for Addleshaw Goddard, DLA Piper and then Hill Dickinson before striking out on his own, said he had been surprised by the rapid growth of gunnercooke in the last two years.
“People come to us for two main reasons – one is to earn more money than they would previously – we will have a £1m partner in this region I am sure.
“The other is for a change in lifestyle – I don’t mean working from home – but not being subject to management dictates, and are more in control of what they are doing and can therefore be seen as trusted advisers to clients.”
