2020 and Beyond!

As some of you will know, The London Law Practice is being incorporated by Harold Benjamin Solicitors, and for me personally, it has been a few weeks of keeping calm and carrying on, as the firm as I have known and grown becomes a part of something else. Getting to know new people, a new culture, the loss of some control (hey all founders and actually mini-megalomaniacs - otherwise you wouldn’t survive) and adapting to change.

As commercial and business advisers, and lawyers working with businesses, we often advised business owners when they were going through their own transformations. As someone who knows the time, effort, love, frustration, highs and lows, the battle wounds and triumphs of creating something from scratch, I felt I always had a great deal of understanding and empathy for the process. 

Now going through it myself, I hadn’t quite predicted the real emotional impact of moving on from the business you made. It’s a kind of a loss of knowing who you are and where you are heading. Your business gives you a sense of identity, belonging and grounding, when everything else is not making sense – even in the hardest times. Sure – there is the thrill of what is to come, but when you build something – it never leaves you.  

I set up the firm at the start of the decade, pretty much, and almost 10 years on, I can look back with real pride to say – I did that!

I built a business, a law firm no less, from nothing – no clients, no partners, no major cash injection, no network of any kind, bruised and battered from a divorce and a toddler in tow. 

I still remember the rush of finding a name (shout out to Rahul Katrak); building the website, re-branding (shout out to Chris Harding, Kelechi Amadi and Vaishali Shah); getting my first client (thank you to Rupesh Patel); meeting one of the most inspiring people I know (Devendra Rampersaud) who gave me the confidence to build a consultancy based business; growing and learning with lawyers that I have worked with over the years to help create services and products (Beyzade Beyzade, Kishan Bhatt, Shamaila Khan, Sangita Gohil, Amit Sharma, Jonathan Lea, Christopher Lawn, Barry Cullen amongst many others); developing a business model, developing software platform through 2018; going through the heartache of looking for investment; preparing for all of the seminars we held – from the workshops in in Whetstone – to big topics held with interesting speakers (thank you to all the speakers and people who have helped put these together); putting together all of the PR, merchandise (as a good friend once said to me – you do love your merch) and we had some bad ass merchandise; coming up with digital marketing campaigns on a shoe string (thank you to Kishan Bhatt, Vaishali Shah, Agnes and David Elektra, Scott Cowan, Geoff Silva, Johann de Silva, Shahzad Ali, Flavilla Fangong, Harpreet Birdi, Jamie Gray, Agnes Gitau, Mandeep Singh for taking part); being recognised for the work we do by various awards organisations (which include being recognised by the SJA 2017 for the incentive scheme developed and ensuring that the consultancy model works to increase inclusion in the legal profession, SME Legal Awards in 2018 for the commercial litigation work we do for small businesses); undertaking some serious and interesting work; sponsoring and raising money for our community including sponsoring the band for V-Day celebrations at Avenue House in Finchley; sponsoring events and raising money on behalf of Find Your Feet and taking part in the annual London Legal Walk.

Last but not least – actually running a law firm, building business and pipeline and managing all that that means - thank you to Dhara Patel, Sam Keetch, Jeremy Downham and Mahenda Patel for the day to day grind.

I have met some absolutely amazing people, and there are too many to list; and like many business owners I have been burnt by others. As someone who avoids conflict – my natural openness has been thoroughly tested. These are all experiences I will take with me – some have bruised me, but they have all made me stronger. 

When I started out – I had no idea what I was doing – and now, I have just a little bit more.

As we near the end of the year, the decade no less and the end of a chapter - I am looking forward to everything 2020 has to offer. 

I believe that a consultancy model, with distributed delivery, utilising technology has benefits – it enables a legal services company to be nimble, flexible and dynamic. However, from a personal point of view I am looking forward to bringing that same ethos and building out a business- friendly service in a more traditional practice – with all the benefits of that that brings to providing excellent legal advice. I cannot wait to face new challenges, put into practice all the experience of the last few years and be a part of something different.

You can still hear the podcasts and Facebook live interviews here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLondonLawPractice and https://soundcloud.com/user-956837858 and see our years in review here too: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12BKU4y_uhsGsEutDon2pjZrCPWuD-5Mp/view?usp=sharing

Wishing everyone the very best for 2020!