Against a backdrop of employees being encouraged back into the office according to the latest KPMG CEO Report, a consultant-style law firm has reported a five fold increase in the number of consultant solicitors in the last five years
AIIC Group (AIIC), the legal group behind Taylor Rose, FDR Law and Kingsley Wood, says it has seen 469% increase in members of its legal consultant programme, from 162 fee earners in May 2020 to over 1,300 staff by May 2025, of which of which 921 are fee earners.
AIIC says the shift to a return to full time office work could drive an acceleration in consultants.
A report published by Codex Edge earlier this year suggested the number of consultant lawyers is now above 4,000; and with the solicitor population of 171,000, in addition to other legal professionals such as licenced conveyancers and legal executives, there is plenty of room for growth say AIIC. Indeed, a recent report by LexisNexis showed that by 2026, 33% of UK lawyers could become consultant lawyers,
AIIC says 60% of its consultants are experienced professionals over the age of 40, and 90% choose to work from home. The majority operate under the Taylor Rose brand, the group’s longest-established business, which also has an employed division, with staff operating across sectors such as property, including conveyancing; private client; family; and criminal law.
FDR Law and Kingsley Wood were both launched in 2024 and have so far grown the membership of their consultant programmes to over 100 between them. FDR Law was relaunched last year as a property-focused legal services business that operates solely under the consultancy model, as does Kingsley Wood, a corporate-focused law firm. The group recorded revenues of £97.3m (+16%) in the financial year ending 30th September 2024
Adrian Jaggard, CEO of the AIIC Group, said:
“Legal consultancy is a fast-growing area of the market for us that is gaining momentum. It is an increasingly viable and attractive way for experienced lawyers to work, and a proven model to help us drive growth, which is why we have continued to invest in our consultant platform and our ability to attract and retain top consultant talent. There is a lot of room for the consultancy market to keep growing strongly and we are well-positioned to be at the forefront of that growth across all our legal services businesses.”
AIIC say the legal consultant business model offers lawyers a ‘central service platform, brand, management and compliance infrastructure from which to operate, in return for a percentage of the lawyer’s revenue.’ Individual lawyers are self-employed consultants and retain a percentage of their billing. This can vary between the different consultant style firms and for AIIC is an average of 70%.
The model has also developed to enable lawyers to employ their own sub-consultants and support staff, without the administrative elements of running their own firm or compliance challenges associated with PI insurance
AIIC themselves say they have invested heavily in technology to support their operation including a fully cloud-based practice management platform built on Salesforce technology.
