From "King of the Losers" to King of the Winners - Law Firm Founder Conversations Podcast: Martyn Day, Co-Founder of Leigh Day

In this episode of our Law Firm Founder Conversations podcast series, our Managing Partner Clare Murray discusses all things law firm founder with Martyn Day, Co-Founder and Senior Partner of Leigh Day. Their podcast chat covers Martyn’s inspiring 35+ years’ experience of setting up and building a market-leading consumer law firm, with over 750 members of staff, focusing on individuals in the UK and across the globe, who have been injured, discriminated against or had their human rights abused. Martyn shares some of his experiences and the key founder lessons that he learnt along the way, to encourage others to take the plunge too:

• The highlights, challenges and turning points in founding and building Leigh Day
• The common founder feeling of being “unemployable”
• Moving from “King of the Losers” to King of the Winners
• The transformative impact of external litigation funding on law firm finances and risk
• Is setting up and owning a firm for everyone?
• Responding to SRA regulatory challenges and taking a robust approach to unfair accusations
• The importance of getting insured – securing D&O cover for law firm partners
• Legacy – should founders worry about it or just enjoy what they’re doing today?
• Creating an institutional law firm brand and sense of purpose
• Keeping the long-term love going for your business and what you are doing.

Martyn Day is the co-founder of leading consumer law firm, Leigh Day. He specialises in international, environment and product liability claims, often as group actions, representing claimants in cases against corporate and government bodies. He is well known for running many high profile, historic and controversial cases, mostly on behalf of groups of claimants, both in this country and abroad. Leigh Day was founded in 1987 and has over 750 people, with main offices in London and Manchester. It is one of The Times Top 100 Law Firms and is ranked at the highest levels for the majority of its practice areas in the legal directories. You can contact Martyn on mday@leighday.co.uk or +44 (0)207 650 1200.

If you are thinking of setting up a new law firm, or are expanding to take your firm’s growth to the next level, and would like to discuss any related partnership or employment law infrastructure issues with us, please do get in touch with Clare Murray or Zulon Begum.

In this episode of our Law Firm Founder Conversations podcast series, our Managing Partner Clare Murray discusses all things law firm founder with Alex McPherson, Founder and Partner of Ignition Law, including:

• What attributes are required for a successful law firm founder?
• Maintaining energy and enthusiasm as a founder during start up and beyond
• The importance of technology and the role it can play in a founder-led firm
• Tips for software and apps to help drive efficiency, particularly when 'making do' in year one
• What does success look like beyond the financial metrics?
• Being a founder vs partner in a larger law firm: the highs and lows
• Building resilience to weather the inevitable storms along the way
• Embracing your mistakes as a founder and learning from failure
• The benefits that a joint venture or strategic alliance can bring, and
• Guidance for those thinking of founding their own firm, or in the early stages of doing so.

Alex McPherson set up Ignition Law in 2015. Advisers for growth, Ignition Law provide expert legal and commercial advice to start-ups and scale-ups, helping clients to navigate through their entrepreneurial journey. Their mission from the very start was to serve entrepreneurial clients, while creating a flexible and hugely fulfilling and caring place to work. Since its launch, both the firm and Alex have won a multitude of awards, including 'Managing Partner of the Year' at the Modern Law Awards, 'Law Firm Culture and Diversity & Inclusion Awards' at SME News 2022 and 'High Growth Business of the Year' at the Federation of Small Businesses Awards 2022, as well as being selected as finalists for many more. You can contact Alex here and connect with Alex on LinkedIn. Links to more information on software and apps mentioned in the episode: ActionStep HighQ Boomerang Microsoft OneNote We hope you enjoy listening to this episode. Please do like, subscribe and share.

In the next of our Law Firm Founder Conversations podcast series, Our Managing Partner Clare Murray discusses all things law firm founder with Dr Peter Allinson, CEO of specialist national Real Estate law firm Davitt Jones Bould.

Launched in 2000, the firm was an early disrupter of the traditional approach to law firm operations; from the start, adopting remote working, based around regional hubs, to drive the growth of the firm and to attract the best specialist Real Estate talent; lifting the burden of administration, billing and even marketing and sales from lawyers who wanted to focus on their technical specialism rather than law firm operations and BD; and building an institutional specialist brand and client relationships, moving away from over-reliance on individual partner brands and practices.

Watch a short video preview here

In this podcast, Dr Peter Allinson and Clare Murray discuss a wide range of law firm founder issues, challenges and opportunities including:

• What can industry teach us to reshape the traditional law firm model for the better?
• What does it take for founder firms to compete with Big Law?
• The benefits of freeing lawyers to do what they do best – and creating a twin track that equally values and rewards technical and operational expertise
• How to build a technical sales team to sell legal services
• The 3 key requirements for a founder firm (or any firm) considering an IPO*:
  • Develop visibility & predictability
  • Make sure the Market is there
  • Eliminate any single point of failure
• Building and financing growth to a level that aligns with personal values, risk threshold and ability to sleep at night!

* First Round Review: Shooting for an IPO? Take These Steps Now Before It's Too Late

Dr Peter Allinson can be contacted on peter.allinson@djblaw.co.uk or +44(0)20 3026 8290.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode. Please do like, subscribe and share. You can listen to the previous episodes in the series below:

Episode 1 - Laura Devine, Founder and Managing Partner of Laura Devine Solicitors (UK/US)

Episode 2 - Joydeep Hor, Founder of People + Culture Strategies (Australia)

Episode 3 - Michael Kim, Co-Founder of Kobre & Kim (US)

If you are thinking of setting up a new law firm, or are expanding to take your firm’s growth to the next level, and would like to discuss any related partnership or employment law infrastructure issues with us, please do get in touch with Clare Murray or Zulon Begum.