Member Article

Shulmans smashes turnover target

Lead corporate solicitors Shulmans LLP has revealed it has broken through the £10million turnover barrier, and additionally revealed growth of 100 per cent in only five years.

Exactly five years ago Tim Halstead, managing partner and the driving force behind the firm’s success, drew up a plan for the firm to grow by 50 per cent in that period and so, he explained, “to exceed that by such a margin is a real achievement.”

Over the same period, Shulmans staff numbers have grown from 90 to 155, creating 65 new jobs, and partner numbers are up from 14 to 22, including three new partners announced this week: Mark Wilkinson, Business Recovery and Insolvency; Rob Lucas, Intellectual Property and Dawn Carlisle, Commercial Property and International. In addition, the consistently high calibre of recruits – including those from firms such as Addleshaw Goddard, Bond Dickinson and Walker Morris – has ensured a flow of new client work to the firm.

Indeed the firm has a client base that might surprise a few, with businesses such as Costcutter, the Chatsworth Estate, and several insurers and Lloyd’s syndicates. The firm is also an acknowledged specialist in the property market, recognised in particular as experts in the house building sector, with clients including Barratt Homes. “And we’ve recently invested further in complementary areas such as planning and construction,” explained Halstead, “and this carefully considered expansion of our core offering, coupled with judicious growth in the more niche areas, has proved a winning formula.”

Halstead, Yorkshire’s current Managing Partner of the Year – the firm is also the current Yorkshire Law Firm of the Year (11-30 partners) – is also rightly proud of the fact that the firm that has neither merged nor acquired another law firm, nor been acquired itself. “

“Our growth has been carefully planned and orchestrated, and is underpinned by strong finances,” he said. “We’re a full-service, UK 200 corporate law firm. We have no net borrowings despite a seven figure IT infrastructure investment and a move into state-of-the-art new premises last year. It’s been a hugely successful past five years, and the next five could be even more so.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nick Horbowyj .