Our firm

Lawrence Stephens is a full-service law firm based in Farringdon, in the City of London. Established over 25 years ago and still founder-led, we pride ourselves on being agile, responsive, and people-focused. With a short distance between ownership and management, we make decisions efficiently and with purpose, always in the best interests of our clients and our people.

We offer a broad range of legal services (see our 'Type of Practice' section for more detail) to a diverse client base. Our clients include private companies, financial institutions, SMEs, entrepreneurs, executives, and high-net-worth individuals. SMEs and their owners form a core part of our client base, followed closely by private individuals and financial institutions, including challenger banks.

Our sector expertise spans private wealth, owner-managed businesses, blockchain and digital assets, retail and hospitality, and sports and entertainment. Notably, our sports team has worked on high-profile matters such as Harry Kane’s transfer to Bayern Munich.

Our dynamic, entrepreneurial approach ensures we remain at the forefront of legal innovation.

Our growth journey

Founded in 1997 by Steven Bernstein, Lawrence Kelly, and Stephen Messias, Lawrence Stephens has grown steadily and successfully. Like our clients, we are entrepreneurial and constantly evolving.

Watch our firm brand video now for more infomation about our approach and values, legal offering and culture.

In recent years, we’ve experienced significant growth, achieving 30% year-on-year revenue increases and expanding from £7 million post-COVID to £22 million last year. Our headcount has doubled, and we now have over 200 employees. In 2024, we were recognised as the third fastest-growing law firm in the UK by headcount outside the Top 100.

We’re proud to be large enough to handle complex matters, yet agile and bespoke enough to maintain exceptional quality and a close-knit culture. We’ve even been tipped as a “firm to watch” on legal industry podcasts, been ranked in Chambers and Partners and continue to collect prestigious awards and accolades.

Our promise to you

When you join Lawrence Stephens, you will be given responsibility and autonomy from your first day and will be supported through each stage of your career development by experienced and understanding senior staff. We guarantee that you will have boundless opportunities to achieve and accelerate your legal career at our firm.

Our Flourish programme, bundled legal services aimed exclusively at start-ups, gives our junior lawyers and non-director fee-earners the opportunity to actively develop commercial skills in prospecting, pitching and relationship management. Through this we encourage proactive business development (BD) behaviours at an earlier stage in your career, furthering our commitment to build a strong BD culture across the firm, and allowing young lawyers to be at the heart of driving these relationships forward and developing their network.

Everyone at Lawrence Stephens has the chance to make a difference; we are passionate about supporting our trainees to make the most out of their training contracts as possible. Our LawLinks network, founded by a former trainee, connects young professionals across the legal and professional services sectors, encouraging meaningful conversations and sharing of experiences, so that you can start to build your network from day one.

We look for people with drive and commitment, independence, creative thinking and personality. Our size allows our trainees to shine. You will be given responsibility and autonomy, with support from our senior fee-earners when needed. 

We like our trainees to stay with us when their training contract finishes and embark on the first stage of their legal career with Lawrence Stephens.

Our values

Our values underpin everything we do, for our clients and our people:

*proactive
We proactively monitor the legal landscape in relation to our clients’ needs – so our advice is always relevant and strategically aligned to your goals.

*collaborative
Our collaborative approach sets us apart. We keep lines of communication open at all times – and stay by your side for every step of the journey.

*personal
Our people make our business. And by letting our people be our guide, our culture thrives, innovation flourishes and we deliver positive outcomes for our clients.

*exceptional
We are committed to being exceptional in everything that we do and measure our success by the trusted relationships that we have built with our clients.

For further infomation about us, please find us on LinkedIn.

Training programme – what to expect

Trainees at Lawrence Stephens are given varied, well-rounded experience tailored to the individual's interests. We run a programme of four six-month seats, which kicks off with an induction programme, including frontloaded training and cohort socials. Each trainee has regular check-ins during their training contract with the training principal to assess their experience, progress and career development.

We actively encourage trainees to drive initiatives forward and in turn they help us to build a culture that is close-knit, friendly and sociable. We host regular social events and charity initiatives, past highlights include Tough Mudder, sponsored walks, and ‘Bake-offs’. First-year trainees are appointed 'Head of House' in our firm-wide house system, where everyone belongs to one of four houses. Throughout the year, houses compete for points which are earnt through social, charitable, and business development activities that you take part in. Our annual sports day and summer BBQ bring everyone together – partners, families, and all - for a day of fun and friendly competition where we crown the house with the most points accumulated throughout the year the winner.

We also prioritise wellbeing. Our wellness programme includes webinars, events such as pilates, boxing, a run-club, and a team of dedicated mental health guardians to support our people.

We look for people with drive and commitment, independence, creative thinking and personality. Our size allows our trainees to shine. You will be given reposonsibility and autonomy, with support from our senior fee-earners when needed. 

We like our trainees to stay with us when their training contract finishes and embark on the first stage of their legal career with Lawrence Stephens.

We have hybrid cohorts of SQE and LPC qualified trainee solicitors and welcome applications from those who have qualifed, or are currently studying, the SQE.

At Lawrence Stephens, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We have a robust diversity policy, and all staff receive annual equity and diversity training to ensure our values are understood and upheld.

As we grow, we remain focused on nurturing the diverse backgrounds and talents of our people. Highlights from our latest diversity data include:

We are a young firm – 63% of our team is under the age of 44, with 26% of management also under 44.

We represent over 12 ethnicities and six religions championing our diverse workforce through our international desks where we incorporate individuals' cultural understanding and networks to better serve our client base.

More than 55% of our workforce are women. Our Gender Equality Network (GEN) supports women in the workplace and drives meaningful change.

62% of our team attended state-run schools.

To maintain and promote diversity, we:

• recruit from the widest possible talent pool;
• actively communicate and practise our diversity principles; and
• monitor diversity levels to ensure continued progress.

• Real estate finance
• Residential real estate
• Commercial real estate
• Dispute resolution
• Corporate & commercial
• Family
• Private wealth & succession planning (contentious & non-contentious)
• Banking
• Employment
• Sports & entertainment

• Corporate & Commercial
• General Commercial

• London

• London