Estimated read time: 13 minutes
Key Points
- New Model Law Firms, also called platform or fee-share firms, now employ more than 4,000 solicitors across England and Wales and are growing at rates that consistently outpace traditional partnership practices.
- The Legal Services Act 2007 created the regulatory conditions that made these firms possible by permitting alternative business structures, which allow non-lawyers to own or manage regulated law firms alongside qualified solicitors.
- Consultant solicitors working within the platform model typically retain a significant share of the fees they generate. At the same time, the firm provides SRA authorisation, professional indemnity insurance, practice management systems, and compliance support.
- Artificial intelligence is amplifying the competitive position of platform firms because their non-partnership governance structures allow faster technology adoption than the consensus-driven processes of most traditional firms can match.
New Model Law Firms (NMLF) are changing UK legal services in ways that would have seemed unlikely twenty years ago, and this change is only speeding up. Platform firms, made up of self-employed consultant solicitors working under a regulated network, now make up a large and growing part of the UK legal market. More than 4,000 lawyers work under fee-share arrangements at dozens of these firms.
The platform model did not emerge from nowhere. It was made possible by the Legal Services Act 2007, which came into force progressively from 2008 and introduced the concept of alternative business structures (ABS) into English and Welsh law for the first time. Before the Act, solicitors’ firms had to be managed and majority-owned by qualified lawyers. The equity partnership was the natural result: a hierarchy in which senior lawyers held equity, junior lawyers worked toward it, and ownership and management were effectively fused.
Under Part 5 of the Legal Services Act 2007, a licensed body, which is the formal term for an ABS, can be owned or managed by non-lawyers, provided an approved regulator authorises the firm. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which authorises ABS firms under the SRA Authorisation of Firms Rules, requires each firm to designate a Head of Legal Practice and a Head of Finance and Administration. Individual solicitors within an ABS remain personally regulated under the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, and the firm itself must comply with the SRA Code of Conduct for Firms. The regulatory obligations on platform firms are not lighter than those on traditional practices.
ABS authorisation became available from October 2011, the date on which the relevant parts of the Act were brought into force. In the years since, the model has moved from an experimental fringe to an established part of the UK legal profession.
How the Platform Model Works
A platform firm gives self-employed solicitors what they need to work on their own, including SRA authorisation, professional indemnity insurance, a case management system, compliance support, and often help with marketing and business development. These solicitors keep a large share of the fees they earn, market-leading for commercial lawyers, depending on the firm and the nature of their practice.
Nexa Law, for example, is an SRA-authorised licensed body that provides its consultant solicitors with access to the LEAP practice management system, legal research tools, compliance guidance, and a central professional services team. Consultants retain a class-leading share of their billing from day one, with no mandatory targets and no requirement to work toward an equity stake.
This model works well for experienced lawyers who already have clients and want to keep practising at a high level, but without the costs of running their own firm or the pressures of a traditional partnership. According to the Codex Edge Platform Firms Report 2025, most platform solicitors have between nine and eighteen years of experience. Leading platform firms retain between 88% and 97% of their lawyers, showing that most who join stay.
Nexa Law broke into The Lawyer Top 200 in 2025, reflecting year-on-year growth that has taken the firm to over 190 lawyers across multiple practice areas. Record revenue for the 2024/25 financial year confirmed the firm’s position as one of the sector’s significant players.
Across the board, NMLFs are growing much faster than traditional partnership firms. Since ABS authorisation began in 2011, more lawyers have moved to non-traditional structures, and this shift is accelerating. The consultant model now attracts solicitors from many practice areas, not just property and family law as in the past. Corporate, commercial, employment, private client, and dispute resolution lawyers are now common at top platform firms.
Independent Research and Market Forecasts
A 2021 report from investment bank Arden Partners provided early institutional validation for these trends, predicting a rapid rise in legal consultancy models and forecasting that up to a third of UK lawyers could work as consultants by 2026. Arden attributed this trajectory to growing demand for flexibility and remote working, both of which were significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report noted that consultant platforms allow lawyers to retain a higher share of their fees while eliminating the overhead and risk of running a traditional practice.
The report’s headline findings were striking. Consultant lawyer numbers were growing at a compound annual growth rate of 21%, while consultant revenues were growing at 26% per year. Arden compared the structural shift to the impact Specsavers had on the opticians’ market, a new delivery model disrupting a profession that had relied on the same high-street structure for generations.
The report also predicted significant market consolidation, forecasting that up to 3,000 of the UK’s 10,000 law firms could close or merge over the following five years, with consultant platforms absorbing much of the talent released. Key drivers included high professional indemnity insurance premiums for sole practitioners and the demonstrated success of remote working during COVID-19, both of which made the consultant platform model, offering legal infrastructure without management responsibility, increasingly attractive.
The Arden report warned that traditional law firms face particular challenges in talent retention due to the appeal of high-revenue-share models, where commercial lawyers typically retain a market-leading share of fees. Arden suggested that the corporate governance model of consultancy firms is winning over traditional partnerships through superior IT infrastructure, professional support, and investment opportunities, factors that matter as much to clients as to the lawyers themselves.
Why Experienced Solicitors Are Making the Move
The financial benefits are clear. A solicitor who bills £300,000 a year and retains a market-leading fee share can expect a substantially higher net income than they would achieve as a salaried employee at a comparable traditional firm. Compared to the salary of a senior associate or salaried partner at a mid-tier firm, consultants usually come out ahead. Those who bill more often keep an even higher share at many firms.
For many solicitors, having control over their work is just as important as earning more. Platform firms let lawyers pick their clients, set their own schedules, work from anywhere, and avoid the politics of partnership. This has been especially important for women. Although women make up 63% of UK solicitors, they are still underrepresented as equity partners in traditional firms (though progress has been made in women becoming salaried partners). Platform models remove the partnership track, so there is no glass ceiling in their structure.
There are also real reasons lawyers are leaving traditional firms. Rising salaries at top firms have squeezed profits for mid-tier practices. High billing targets, long hours, and less supervision have made traditional firms less appealing to experienced lawyers. When solicitors can earn more, work more flexibly, and keep their client relationships, it becomes harder to justify staying in a traditional salaried role.
What Clients Experience
People often focus on how the platform model benefits lawyers, but it is just as important for clients. When clients hire a lawyer at a platform firm, they work directly with a senior solicitor from start to finish. Their case is not handed over to a junior associate after they sign up.
Pricing is changing as well. Platform firms have lower costs than traditional firms because they do not incur the expenses of expensive city offices, equity partner pay, or large teams of associates. This lets them offer more competitive prices and, when clients want it, fixed fees. In a 2025 survey by Clio, more than half of UK firms said they planned to use fixed-fee arrangements more in the next year. Platform firms, which do not rely on billing time in small units, are better able to offer this than traditional firms.
Artificial Intelligence and the Platform Advantage
Artificial intelligence is changing legal practice faster than most firms anticipated. The share of legal organisations actively integrating generative AI rose from 14% in 2024 to 26% in 2025, and the majority of UK firms expect AI to be central to their workflows within three years. Tasks that previously required a paralegal or junior associate, including first drafts of standard documents, legal research summaries, and due diligence checklists, can now be completed faster and at lower cost.
Platform firms have a clear advantage here. Traditional partnerships need agreement from many partners before they can change their technology. In contrast, a platform firm’s management team can quickly decide to adopt new technology and put it in place. Once the decision is made, consultants can start using the new tools right away.
The global market for alternative legal service providers grew by 40% in two years, reaching $28.5 billion. This growth is partly because AI lets these providers do more work without hiring more people. For firms with low costs and high consultant retention, using AI effectively brings major efficiency gains.
The Challenges Platform Growth Brings to the Profession
The talent pipeline is the most serious structural concern. Platform firms recruit experienced solicitors who bring their own client following. They are not, in the main, training the next generation of lawyers. If the shift of experienced solicitors away from traditional firms continues and accelerates, the question of who will supervise and train newly qualified solicitors becomes acute. The profession cannot sustain itself if the firms bearing the cost of training are systematically losing their experienced lawyers to those that do not.
Keeping quality consistent across a network of self-employed lawyers in different locations is another challenge. It takes real investment in compliance systems, file reviews, and client service standards to manage this. Top platform firms have focused on these areas, and their high retention rates suggest clients are generally satisfied. As the sector grows, the SRA will pay even closer attention.
Cybersecurity is a growing and specific risk. Law firms saw a 77% increase in cyber attacks in 2024, and a distributed network of home-working solicitors, each accessing client files from their own devices and broadband connections, presents a wider attack surface than a centralised office-based firm. The SRA Code of Conduct for Firms requires firms to maintain effective systems and controls to mitigate cybersecurity risks, and the regulator has made clear that platform governance structures do not reduce that obligation.
Private equity interest in platform firms is also growing. Several of these firms already have private equity backing, as their steady revenue, low fixed costs, and scalable setup appeal to investors. While private equity can help firms grow, it can also create pressure for returns that may clash with the culture of autonomy that attracts lawyers to these firms.
Policy and Future Direction
The SRA has not imposed restrictions specifically on the fee-share model, and its approach to ABS authorisation has been broadly consistent since 2011. As the sector matures, closer regulatory attention to training, supervision, and the treatment of vulnerable clients is likely. The introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination in September 2021 has already begun to change the profession’s supply side. Solicitors who qualify through the SQE and the two-year qualifying work experience requirement are not tied to a single training contract employer and can gain experience across several organisations. That flexibility may, over time, increase the supply of newly qualified lawyers who are accustomed to non-traditional working arrangements.
Fixed and outcome-based pricing will continue to grow, while hourly billing will decline. AI efficiency, client demand for clear costs, and the platform model all support this trend. Firms that have already changed their pricing will find the shift easy. Those who rely on billing by the hour will find it harder to adjust.
The Arden Partners report, published in 2021, forecast that up to a third of UK lawyers could be operating as consultants by 2026 — a prediction that has proven directionally accurate. With consultant lawyer numbers having grown at a 21% compound annual growth rate and consultant revenues at 26%, the question is no longer whether the platform model will persist, but how quickly it will continue to grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a platform law firm and a traditional law firm?
A platform law firm is a network of self-employed consultant solicitors who practise under a central regulated brand, sharing infrastructure such as professional indemnity insurance, practice management systems, and compliance support, while retaining the majority of the fees they generate. A traditional law firm employs its lawyers or enters into a partnership with them, who receive a salary or a share of firm profits rather than retaining a percentage of their own billings.
Does the SRA regulate platform law firms?
Yes, platform firms operating in England and Wales are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the same way as traditional firms, operating as licensed bodies under the Legal Services Act 2007, and individual consultant solicitors within them remain personally regulated under the SRA Standards and Regulations 2019.
Do clients receive a less senior lawyer if they use a platform firm?
No, clients at platform firms typically work directly with the senior solicitor who takes on their matter throughout, rather than being passed to a junior associate for day-to-day handling. The platform model attracts experienced lawyers with established expertise, and the absence of a partnership hierarchy means clients generally maintain direct contact with the same solicitor from instruction to conclusion.
How are consultant solicitors at platform firms remunerated?
Consultant solicitors retain a percentage of the fees they generate, after the platform firm deducts its share to cover SRA authorisation, insurance, technology, and support services. Leading platform firms offer market-leading or class-leading fee shares that make the consultant model financially compelling when compared with salaried employment or equity partnership tracks at traditional firms. The Arden Partners report highlighted that these high-revenue-share models are a primary driver of talent migration away from traditional practices.
What does the growth of platform firms mean for the legal profession?
The growth of platform firms is changing the structure of the UK legal market in ways that are likely to be lasting. As more experienced lawyers move to consultant models and AI takes on more of the routine work that junior associates previously handled, the profession will need to adapt its training and supervision frameworks. The SRA will need to ensure its oversight arrangements, set out in the SRA Authorisation of Firms Rules, keep pace with the scale and complexity of the sector.
If you are an experienced solicitor thinking about becoming a consultant, or a client seeking direct access to senior legal experts, Nexa Law would be happy to talk with you. Please call us on 03300 242420 or fill in our contact form.