Member Article

Liverpool law firm celebrates fourth anniversary with major office expansion

Liverpool-based law firm CEL Solicitors is marking its fourth year in business by expanding its workspace and planning future growth, including a massive recruitment drive, on International Women’s Day.

The civil litigation specialist is set to take further space at 20 Chapel Street, where it already occupies the 12th floor, having created an office complete with three bars, two ‘think swings’, pool table and a 70-seater amphitheatre.

Launched in 2017, CEL Solicitors marks its anniversary on International Women’s Day (8 March) – apt since it is female-owned – and now boasts a 65-strong workforce, offering expertise across seven practice areas: housing disrepair; data breach claims; Japanese knotweed claims; financial mis-selling claims, land boundary disputes, fraud prevention claims and business interruption insurance.

Now, the national law firm’s latest expansion to the sixth floor of 20 Chapel Street will pave the way to hire 120 further members of staff over the next two years.

Jessica Hampson, director and owner of CEL Solicitors, said: “Since launching four years ago, we’ve gone from strength to strength, growing from just one service line to seven and massively increasing our headcount, which we absolutely could not have achieved without heavy investment in technology and a strong ‘people before profits’ ethos.

“To be able to mark our anniversary on International Women’s Day is particularly poignant for me, as it was of course a major challenge – and risk – setting up a law firm in an already crowded market. But, I was a passionate about creating a business that disrupted the industry, putting people before profits and rewarding effort and talent regardless of background, experience or social demographic.

“We created our office at 20 Chapel Street with our team’s wellbeing at the core – everything here is designed to foster a collaborative, engaging workspace, from the ’think ‘swings’, bars and Banksy artwork on the walls to the panoramic views over the River Mersey.

“We wanted the office to be somewhere that the team look forward to coming into, so to now be announcing an expansion onto the sixth floor is incredible and will allow us to continue our growth.”

The new space on the sixth floor occupies 7,168 sq ft, with fit-out works set to begin next month. Initial plans include design inputs from the team such as a seven metre-long aquarium and further games and chill-out areas similar to the 12th floor.

And, having bolstered its team by 100% during the last 12 months, CEL Solicitors is now looking forward to welcoming new members to its team and increasing investment in tech to help facilitate the company’s expansion.

Jessica added: “We’re proud that, despite the challenges of the last year, we’ve managed to expand our team and also add two brand new practice areas to our offering.

“This is a true testament to the dedication, tenacity and talents of the team. We are passionate about securing the very best outcomes for our clients – whether that’s a social housing tenant living in uninhabitable conditions and pursuing a housing disrepair claim, or an individual whose personal data privacy has been breached.

“Working with Barclay Eagle Labs, we’re now exploring how we step up our already innovative approach to client handling using technology such as AI – we’ve previously been dubbed as a ‘Scouse Silicon Valley’ for our disruptive approach, which we’ve really embraced and ran with. I’m extremely passionate about investing in the right tech to achieve the most efficient and high quality outcomes for clients, helping the business to grow, as well as modernising the legal sector which can often be viewed as ‘traditional and stuffy’.

“As a firm, we believe that people with passion really can make a difference – and that’s what we’re doing at 20 Chapel Street…one office at a time!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Williams .