Forward-thinking barristers’ business receives £10 million in private equity investment

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An innovative online barristers’ business offering a “reimagined” Bar without physical chambers has received £10 million in private equity investment.

The Barrister Group, which includes around 240 lawyers, verified that LDC (the private equity division of Lloyds Banking Group) had invested an “eight-figure sum”. This is a boost for the group’s non-traditional approach to barristers’ services, which traditionally sit in physical chambers near the four Inns of Court in central London.

The Barrister Group, which is split into three divisions, has been running since 2001. Clerksroom, the oldest of these divisions allows solicitors to instruct member barristers online while Clerksroom Direct, launched in 2014, facilitates the teaching of barristers by the public. In addition, a third business opened just this year with a focus on the provision of employment law advice.

The combined businesses are thought to have an annual revenue of about £9.3 million.

The deal has been led by LDC directors, Oliver Schofield and Stefan Gunn, who noted the investment would be used to “support and advance the practices of existing members, to develop and grow specialist practice groups, to increase opportunities for those practising or seeking to practise at the Bar, to encourage and make it easier for members of the public to use a barrister and to further develop the underlying legal technologies to support these objectives”.

This investment reflects recent developments in the ever-changing structure of the legal profession and was made possible by legislation from 2007, which removed the obstacles to outside investment in legal services businesses. Although, until now, the reform has mostly affected solicitors, with the creation of alternative business structures allowing external investors to own a share of a law practice.

Commenting on the deal, Christina Blacklaws, a former president of the Law Society and a non-executive director of The Barrister Group, said it’s “an investment in legal technology, an investment in opening up the profession to a wider pool of talent and an investment in access to justice, whereby instructing solicitors and members of the public can access counsel quickly and efficiently”.

Learn more about the structure of legal practices in this Feature on the types of law firm partnership.