Lionshead Law

London based employment law specialists, Lionshead Law, have announced that they are expanding throughout England and Wales.

Company founder, Belinda Lester explains that it is the move away from a traditional law firm three years ago into a business which isn’t a law firm but has only fully qualified solicitors advising clients, charges fixed-fees payable in advance, has very low overheads and which allows for flexibility as well as certainty for both its legal advisers and its clients, which has allowed for this rapid growth.

“In private practice, I found that the high cost and the traditional way of charging an hourly rate for employment law services was off-putting to clients, making it difficult to sell my services to both employers and employees alike. For many, obtaining employment advice was perceived to be prohibitively expensive and as a result, I was struggling to develop the department. 

However, I knew that the clients I did have were extremely happy with my advice and that if I was able to offer that service in a way which was more transparent in terms of costs and also less expensive, it would be far easier to build up a client base.  I also knew that chasing bad debt was time consuming and made bad business sense.  Having fees agreed and paid before any work is carried out is, without doubt, the better way to operate.”

That was when Belinda decided to set up Lionshead Law, realising that she could offer exactly the same level and quality of service by charging out on the basis of fixed-fees (for individuals and for each stage of litigation) and on monthly retainers for businesses, while also having a greater degree of flexibility as to how and when she worked, by working from home and managing her own time. 

Belinda said, “I could keep overheads to a minimum by being a company rather than a law firm, having Lionshead Law consultants working from home and I could finally overcome the issue of “bad debt” and poor cash flow by ensuring clients agreed the fee and paid it in advance of any work being carried out. This takes all the uncertainty out of the relationship between client and legal adviser and ensures that the consultants working with Lionshead Law always get paid for the work they have done immediately.”

Lionshead Law was set up in 2013 and since then the work has flooded in.  Belinda commented, “Where before I had struggled with business development, I was now struggling to keep up with the instructions.” 

Belinda had always planned to expand the business, allowing other employment lawyers the flexibility to work for themselves but with the benefits of a team to discuss cases with and cover holidays, plus the support of the Lionshead Law brand and infrastructure, providing access to PLC and Westlaw, insurance cover, admin and business development support and she is thrilled to see her plan becoming a reality.