Today, law firms are businesses, not genteel partnerships. The point is highlighted by the fact that over the last 3 years, four UK law firms sold themselves through IPOs on UK stock markets and a fifth is about to do the same, as is highlighted by a June 4, 2018 article in the Financial Times. Here’s the opening section:
“A fifth UK law firm is to float on the London Stock Exchange as signs grow that momentum for IPOs is building in a sector that has clung to a partnership model for centuries. Knights, a regional firm with revenues of £35m in the year to April 2018, announced on Monday its intention to list on the London Stock Exchange, in an IPO expected to value the business at £100m. The announcement comes only weeks after Rosenblatt Solicitors announced its own flotation, which raised £43m. These followed two more IPOs last year: Keystone in November and Gordon Dadds last July. The first UK law firm to float was Gateley, in June 2015. Gateley’s market cap has almost doubled since, from £100m to about £190m, according to Bloomberg figures.”
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