Keystone Law (formerly Lawyers Direct; operating in Australia as Keypoint Law) is a national law firm headquartered in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, United Kingdom, with offices in several other countries, which offers legal services for business and individuals. The firm was established in 2002, operating under a

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wherein lawyers use a technology platform provided to work flexibly, rather than necessarily working in a physical office space maintained by the firm. In 2017, it became the third firm in the UK to be listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

(KEYS).

History

Foundation and early growth

The firm was established in 2002 by solicitor James Knight, formerly with

Trowers & Hamlins Trowers & Hamlins LLP is an international law firm with offices throughout the UK, Middle East and Far East. It has over 150 partners and more than 900 employees. Headquartered in London, Trowers & Hamlins was founded nearly 250 years ago. H ...

, and Charles Stringer, who was then Head of Sales at the

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. They did so with the premise that it would provide legal services without the overhead inherent in maintaining an office environment for employees. The firm was initially called Lawyers Direct, and brought attention to itself through promotional efforts such as distributing 1,000 bags of

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s at a Department of Trade and Industry awards ceremony with their logo and the slogan, "These days you have to be nuts to pay for overhead". In 2008, the firm re-branded as Keystone Law, due to concerns that it was overly associated with

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work, contrary to the broader and higher-level experience of many of the lawyers involved. By 2011, the firm had developed an IT platform through which its lawyers were able to engage in

remote work Remote work, also called work from home (WFH), work from anywhere, telework, remote job, mobile work, and distance work is an employment arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, ware ...

, reducing the costs of maintaining office space, and enabling lawyers to avoid the costs of

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, allowing the firm to reduce customer costs. The company has office facilities for when face to face meetings are required. The

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, which generally impacted traditional law firms negatively, created opportunities for the firm to expand its practice areas, with the addition of a healthcare law group in 2011. The firm had 70 lawyers as of 2008, 95 lawyers as of 2010, and 300 lawyers as of 2018. Lawyers are generally been recruited from other firms after garnering six to ten years of experience in practice, depending on the office, and do not have a set target for billable hours, instead being paid a percentage of the fees generated by their work.

Structural changes and international expansion

In October 2013, the firm converted to an Alternative Business Structure (ABS), making it the 173rd ABS to be approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, enabling the firm to offer a range of services in addition to law. It also allowed non-solicitor and co-founder Charles Stringer to become a director of the firm. Also in 2013, the firm implemented a recruitment campaign to attract partner-level lawyers to join the firm, increasing its headcount by 48% over the following year. The firm formally launched operations in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

on May 30, 2014, under the name Keypoint Law. The name selection was due to the unavailability of the Keystone name in Australia. In October 2014, the firm accepted £3.15m in investment from a private equity firm, Root Capital. Root acquired a 35% equity interest from Charles Stringer, one of the founding Partners. In January 2016 Keystone announced the opening of an office on the

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, which required the establishment of a new law firm there, under local regulations. The move made Keystone the first UK law firm to establish a presence there in nearly 30 years. In November 2016, ''Legal Week'' named Keystone Law in their annual Best Legal Advisers report. The firm was positively reviewed by Chris Bull, who chaired the judging panel of the 2016 Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards, in a 2016 interview in ''Modern Law Magazine''. Following the launch of its Isle of Man office, the firm opened an office in Northern Ireland through a commercial merger with existing Belfast firm McMahon McKay. In November 2017, Keystone announced plans to become the third firm in the UK to be listed on the

, with an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. The listing was carried out on November 27, 2017, with share prices rising by approximately 20% shortly thereafter.

Accreditation

Keystone Law is a consistent recipient of industry awards, such as the Law Society Excellence Awards, and is annually recognised by Chambers and Partners (Guide to the world's best lawyers) and the Legal 500. The firm is also recognised as the UK's Best Legal Adviser in Legal Week and by the Lawyer UK 200.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Law firms established in 2002 Law firms based in London Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange