UK law firm TLT has experienced rapid growth over the last several years, and London has been key to that success the head of its new City office has told City A.M.
The Bristol-headquartered law firm TLT has seen such impressive growth, it defeated its own target of £140m in revenue by 2025 by over three years.
The firm’s new head of its London office, partner Gareth Oldale, told City A.M., that London has “spearheaded a lot of the growth that is happening across the firm”.
The firm broke through the £100m barrier during the pandemic. Its latest results for 2022/23 showed the firm generated £157m in turnover, and according to Oldale, its 2023/24 financial year, which will be revealed later this year, shows a “continued upward trajectory”.
Oldale said the firm’s growth in London and building its headcount were two of the reasons behind the growth.
He stated: “London’s playing a very prominent role in that, with a large number of significant lateral hires in the last 12 months, and we’ve got more programmed in for the year ahead in really important areas for us in the City.”
But what makes a lawyer in London want to join TLT over a magic circle firm or a US law firm where the paycheck is significantly higher?
Oldale stated: “We really have a clear sense of purpose, which can sound quite twee.” Still, he noted that the firm is solid on its culture and values, which has allowed it to attract talented lawyers and see itself get on more prominent work.
He pointed out: “We seek to look after our people and also obviously to act in our client’s best interests, and it has been something that we have been successful in not watering down as we’ve grown.”
A part of that is the firm does not mandate that people have to be in the office a set number of days per week.
He stated that the candidates the firm has spoken to in the legal market, where there have been mandates to come into the office three or four days a week, is, to some, “a complete turnoff”.
Oldale noted that the firm has had a: “Really positive, large and growing number of female partners in the business”.
It is not just laterally, over the last three years, women at TLT have made up 66 per cent of partner promotions.
Additionally, last month the firm set out its ambitious target to achieve 50 per cent female representation at partner level by 2029. Again, after breaking its 2025 target to have 33 per cent female partners by two years.
Oldale, who is also head of data privacy and cybersecurity, took over the office head role earlier this month. He stated that the firm is still seeing huge opportunities in the London market. In the next year, Oldale expects its partnership to be bigger, its workforce to be bigger in London and the firm’s revenue to be higher.