Member Article

Square One reflect on first year of business

Newcastle’s newest law firm Square One Law has recently celebrated its first birthday, after a year of overwhelming successes. Bdaily has spoken to the founding partners Alan Fletcher and Ian Gilthorpe to find out more.

While the North East is home to several well established law firms, Ian and Alan felt there was still a gap in the market. The recession was a difficult time for many professional services businesses, resulting in cuts in overheads and redundancies - which Ian and Alan believe have had a detrimental effect on the quality of service provided.

In response, the pair decided to set up on their own, and have quickly set about attracting serious talent to the firm - although in the early stages, they had little idea of what to expect.

“When we started just over 12 months ago, we had just two partners - myself and Ian - and two members of staff, and were operating out of Gosforth Cricket Club,” Alan recounts. “Since then we have grown to a staff of 8 partners and 25 members of staff.”

This high level of growth is testament to the positive culture which the pair have strived to foster within the firm. Employees at the firm are highly valued, and are given the opportunity to become deeply embroiled with the business from an early stage.

“Good people know it’s part of the contract and expect to work hard, but they want to be part of something which appreciates their contribution and that they are proud to be part of.” Ian continues. “I see us as a very credible alternative and certainly the way in which clients are responding is just fantastic.”

The positive client response can be attributed to the rounded service the firm provides - which encompases more than just legal counsel.

“There are a lot of clients who are looking for something else out of their advisors because they themselves are facing challenges and need more from their advisor,” says Alan.

“That is not necessarily to make cost savings, instead it is about getting back to traditional values and creating those trusted advisor relationships where you have a business relationship, and can advise them on anything.

“By coming to us they know they’re going to get senior lawyers who are experienced with commercial acumen and who are really going to sit alongside them in those tough times.”

The past 12 months have been an incredibly exciting period for the growing firm, and Ian and Alan now hope to continue this success into year two.

“We will have a period over the next 12 months where we will bed in the people who have joined.” Ian continues. “We do have a culture that is very optimistic, enthusiastic and almost by its nature people we attract have that type of outlook on life.

“That’s easy to do in a start up situation, and over the next year we need to ensure that it is embedded into the firm as a whole on an ongoing basis.

“We also need to ensure we’re all providing the level of service to clients that we are contracting to do and from them on slow but steady growth - although its been anything but slow and steady so far!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .