Firm:
Nexus Solicitors
Turnover: £2.7m
Total number of partners: Seven
Total number of lawyers: 25
Main practice areas: Corporate and commercial, commercial property, dispute resolution, employment, sport
Key clients: Orapi, Streetwise Sports Company, SMG
Number of offices: One
Location: Manchester
The story of Nexus Solicitors begins six years ago, when five lawyers from medium-sized national firms decided that they wanted something more out of their careers.
The five – Jamie Lloyd and Steve Isherwood, corporate practitioners at Beachcroft Wansbroughs; Tony Brook and Christopher Pugh, litigators at Berrymans Lace Mawer; and Desmond O’Driscoll from Manchester firm Turner Parkinson – banded together to found Nexus. Their aim was to create a small but full-service firm acting for owner-managed businesses across the region.
“It was a mixture of a lot of things that all came together at the same time,” says Lloyd. “We thought we’d do a better job if we were to do it ourselves – and have better fun. There are clearly lots of clients who we work for who are fed up of instructing big practices.”
Nexus’s core clients include small businesses, as well as football clubs, sporting agents and other companies such as venue management giant SMG. The firm aims to provide an efficient but relaxed service, including not always turning up in traditional lawyer garb of suits and ties.
“We like to think we have a certain empathy with our clients,” Lloyd explains. “They need looking after. We wanted to provide a partner-led service, but we do it as cost-effectively as we can. We’ve been quite successful at picking up our business clients from the bigger practices.”
Since its foundation Nexus has flourished and last year brought in a total of £2.7m. It is in the midst of a growth spurt; four of the founding partners remain and there are another three partners on the 25-strong fee-earner roster. Keoghs corporate partner Melanie Yeomans is shortly to join Nexus, becoming the firm’s eighth partner.
There is no managing partner; instead “majority rules”, according to Lloyd. “We still all do an awful lot of admin,” he says, pointing out that the firm is still too young to be able to afford losing a partner to management. “We’re still quite small and partners bear a responsibility for bringing work in.”
While Nexus has no firm three or five-year plans, Lloyd is clear about the direction in which he and his partners want to see the practice develop. The firm would welcome new employment and IP lawyers, as well as insolvency practitioners.
“We want to be able to continue to provide the best possible service we can for clients, which would mean bolting people on, or maybe even bolting departments on,” says Lloyd.
But Nexus is not planning on merging with a bigger firm. Its founders, having escaped larger firms, are content to remain boutique-sized.
