Harper James' ambitious growth plans on track as team expands and revenue increases 37%

HARPER JAMES, the national law firm purpose built to support growing entrepreneurial businesses, continues its ambitious expansion plans by closing its financial year with an increase in revenue of 37%, growing its staff by 41% across the business and reaching its 100^th employee milestone. This follows a strong 44% average year on year revenue growth for the last three years – with the firm having ambitions to continue to scale and reach £20m within the next four years.

With regional offices in the Midlands, London, and Yorkshire, Harper James is firmly on track to doubling its number of lawyers by 2025 to support its growing client base.

Adding to the ten lawyers appointed between January and April 2022, a further 12 senior appointments have been made, firmly strengthening the capabilities of the firm’s Commercial, Corporate, Employment, Equity Incentives and Financial Services offerings. The firm has also made the strategic move to hire Head of Revenue Operations, Dani Conlon, who will lead this new function to support the firm’s rapidly scaling growth.

Key solicitor hires include:

Commercial

Caroline Trasler, who has 20+ years’ experience and specialises in franchise agreements, business contracts and early-stage commercial support for new and smaller businesses.
Kevin Manship, who has 20+ years’ experience, including at a top 50 law firm and at numerous client secondments as an in-house legal resource into multi-disciplinary teams involved in the procurement of IT, technology, and infrastructure projects.
Liz Appleyard, who brings 30+ years’ experience working in private practice assisting clients trading nationally and internationally with a range of commercial issues and agreements.

Commercial Litigation

Charlotte Peel, who has worked for a range of clients from start-ups to global FTSE 100 firms and has experience in all forms of alternative dispute resolution and particular interest in director/shareholder disputes and matters.
Liz Black, who has 20+ years’ experience, including heading-up a dispute resolution practice for six years, she advises businesses on dispute evaluation and resolution.

Commercial Property

Genevieve Stevenson, who joins from a top 50 law firm and has experience in dealing with a wide variety of commercial property situations.
Rachel Jones, who has 20+ years’ experience in property and brings experience in dealing with the full range of property matters, including financing, sale and purchase, landlord and tenant matters.

Corporate

Baljit Chohan, who has 30+ years’ experience during which he has headed corporate teams and advised businesses from high growth start-ups to FTSE 100 in their M&A strategy, execution, fundraisings, and joint ventures.
Phillipa Carson, who has 12+ years’ experience from working at Top 20 law firm and in-house in industry for a global business.
Tristan Johnston, who advises on employee incentives arrangements, share incentive plans, manages equity arrangements, and is experienced with venture capital and M&A transactions.

Employment

Lisa Moore, who has 10+ years’ experience representing SMEs, along with senior executives on a wide range of employment issues, including commercial disputes with a particular focus on employment related contractual issues.

Financial Services

Indraneel Basu Majumdar, who has 20+ years’ experience as a corporate finance lawyer, most recently at JP Morgan. He has a wide range of regulatory and transactional experience spanning payment services, cash management, treasury services, digitalisation and tokenisation.

Commenting on the growth in revenue and new hires, the firm’s Founder & CEO Toby Harper says:

“Surpassing our 100^th member of staff is a big milestone for us and a proud moment when I reflect on the days when I started the firm in my living room.

“I continue to be impressed by the calibre of hires we attract, which in turn means that we’re able to continue delivering an exceptional service for our clients. The fact that we’ve been able to recruit in such a difficult market, coupled with a remarkably low attrition rate tells me that we must be doing something right! While our team is expanding at rapid speed, we are taking conscious steps to ensure that our strong firm culture and ethos is preserved.

“The financial growth, strong pipeline of work and new clients we’re seeing provide a strong indication that we will be able to realise our ambitions to scale.”

For more information, please visit the Harper James website.