{"id":2180967,"date":"2026-10-19T07:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2180967-knights-ceo-on-culture-deals-and-his-unfinished-business-in-birmingham"},"modified":"2026-10-22T15:47:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T14:47:49","slug":"knights-ceo-on-culture-deals-and-his-unfinished-business-in-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2180967-knights-ceo-on-culture-deals-and-his-unfinished-business-in-birmingham","title":{"rendered":"Knights CEO on culture, deals and his ‘unfinished business’ in Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Beech has some unfinished business in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

He arrived in the city as a corporate lawyer 26 years ago, and left four years later, just as he was getting going. Now, 15 years into running listed legal and professional services group Knights, he wants to make the firm a major player there.<\/p>\n

Looking back on leaving the city, he says: \u201cI left that project way too premature. So now, we\u2019ve got this opportunity. I feel like we are going to revisit that project and finish it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at Knights\u2019 first business event in the city, a breakfast at Birmingham\u2019s Council House, Beech made clear the region is a priority. Birmingham feels like home, he told guests, and he\u2019s passionate about the West Midlands.<\/p>\n

Third time lucky<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The clearest sign of intent is Knights\u2019 latest hire. Paul Cliff, who spent more than 23 years at Gateley, including four as head of its national corporate team, has just joined as a corporate <\/a>partner in Birmingham.<\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the first attempt. \u201cThat\u2019s my third go at hiring Paul,\u201d says Beech.<\/p>\n

So what changed? By the third approach, Cliff says, Knights was simply \u201ca better proposition than it was two years previously\u201d. At the breakfast, Cliff suggested Knights isn\u2019t recognised enough in the West Midlands. Beech doesn\u2019t disagree, and he\u2019s candid about why. Knights hasn\u2019t focused enough on PR and profile, he admits, and has let others fill the gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll definitely take some responsibility for that,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been very good at shouting that ourselves. \u201cI think we can do better, and I think we\u2019re trying to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighting back against London<\/strong><\/h4>\n

At the breakfast, Beech argued that the regions are all caught in London\u2019s shadow, and that they should fight back to keep work here rather than see it drift to the capital.<\/p>\n

The numbers back him up. London was the only English region to see foreign investment grow last year, according to EY\u2019s latest UK Attractiveness Survey, attracting 279 projects. The West Midlands came third, behind Scotland, with 68.<\/p>\n

But Beech sees Birmingham\u2019s appeal to overseas investors as a big opportunity. He describes the city as a friendlier place for foreign companies to do business, and wants Knights to be a go-to firm for international investment into the region.<\/p>\n

EY\u2019s survey suggests investors agree, ranking Birmingham the second most sought-after UK city outside London among those planning to invest.<\/p>\n

His ambition is for Birmingham to become a financial centre in its own right. It already has the largest financial and related professional services workforce of any UK city outside the capital, with nearly 60,000 jobs. \u201cForeign investment will come in,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just London.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing things differently<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Knights has never been a typical law firm.<\/p>\n

In 2012, it became one of the first to ditch the traditional partnership model in favour of a corporate structure, with a chief executive rather than a managing partner. It\u2019s now one of only a handful of listed law firms<\/a> in the UK, and has grown organically as well as by buying regional firms.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest differences is that its lawyers don\u2019t have individual fee targets. \u201cTargets are for salespeople,\u201d Beech told guests, which, in his view, prevents collaboration.<\/p>\n

Instead, Knights judges its people on how well they work together, with the aim of passing work between offices and teams rather than competing for it. The firm is run through regional leadership rather than separate practice groups, and has no plans to open in London.<\/p>\n

But ask Beech what really sets Knights apart, and he doesn\u2019t talk about structure. It\u2019s the people, and the culture, he says. It\u2019s a view that came through repeatedly from partners and staff in the room.<\/p>\n

No room for big egos<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Knights, he says, is no place for big egos.<\/p>\n

So what does he look for in a new hire, or a firm he\u2019s thinking of buying? \u201cFriendliness, down-to-earthness,\u201d he says. People who are focused on performance rather than personal gain, and who are \u201cinterested in helping other people, interested in their colleagues, as much as clients\u201d.<\/p>\n

If he sees someone championing their team rather than talking themselves up, he\u2019s \u201call in\u201d. \u201cThat\u2019s our culture.\u201d The key to keeping that culture, in his view, is leading by example, and Knights puts in place a culture-carrying leader on location to support all of its people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a standard he holds himself to in other ways too. For someone so at ease in front of a room, it\u2019s a surprise to hear Beech was once \u201cabsolutely petrified\u201d of public speaking. His advice to younger lawyers is to keep practising, rather than give up if they aren\u2019t good at it straight away.<\/p>\n

As for natural presenters: \u201cGuess what, nobody is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same thinking explains Knights\u2019 decision not to adopt hybrid working in 2022, when much of the profession went the other way. Building a collaborative firm remotely, he says, \u201cwould be like trying to create a football team by everyone in their back garden\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need the players together to coach them.\u201d You might expect that to have put people off. Beech says the opposite happened, with some people coming back to the business, drawn by \u201cthe energy and the spirit that was in the offices\u201d. \u201cIt attracts people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the place of work is soulless, that doesn\u2019t attract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty deals and counting<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Knights has made around 30 acquisitions under Beech, and the lesson he\u2019s taken from them is that cultural fit matters more than anything. It\u2019s something you can only judge in the room, not with a formula.<\/p>\n

The latest deal, for the commercial and private wealth practices of South East firm Moore Barlow, completes on 1 November and brings around 160 lawyers into the group.<\/p>\n

Having passed \u00a3200m of revenue, Beech believes Knights has reached a turning point. In the early days, he says, he needed resilience because so many people questioned what he was doing. \u201cI believed in it so much.\u201d Now, \u201cthe business does some of the talking\u201d. \u201cI feel we\u2019ve built the foundations. Now the house can come out of the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfinished business<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Beech has no regrets about the deals he\u2019s walked away from. If anything, it\u2019s the ones he hasn\u2019t done yet that occupy him. There are still businesses he wants to bring into Knights, he says, and he isn\u2019t giving up on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep going, thinking, they\u2019ll come one day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Birmingham, it seems, is one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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