News & Insights

Article summary: You don’t need to wait until you’re eligible for consultancy to start preparing for it. The lawyers who make the smoothest transition are well prepared with a few key skills, including building client relationships, developing a specialism, being comfortable with the business side of law, generating a professional network beyond their own firm,

Article summary: Moving to consultancy means moving away from the built-in social structure of office life. However, it doesn’t mean you need to feel isolated. Building both a professional network and a personal support system in your first year matters just as much as building your client base, so you can thrive both professionally and

Article summary: Marketing as a consultant doesn’t have to be overwhelming. If you find the prospect of promoting yourself uncomfortable, a handful of consistent habits, including being visible, easy to find, and easy to recommend, do most of the work for you. However, if you enjoy marketing, there’s plenty of room to be more proactive

Article Summary: Your first year as a consultant solicitor isn’t about doing everything at once. The core things to prepare for are: a short adjustment period while invoicing and cash flow find their rhythm, a realistic (not overwhelming) approach to generating work, honing in on marketing activity that builds over time, and making sure you have a support network in place so consultancy doesn’t mean

Article Summary: You don’t need an existing client following to make consultancy work, and you don’t need to become a natural salesperson overnight either. Most lawyers already have a stronger foundation than they realise, in the form of relationships, referrals, and reputation built over years of practice. For those with a smaller existing network, business development can still be built

Article Summary: Building your consultancy practice to where you want it to be can take a little time. For many coming from traditional employed roles, income may dip briefly when you first start, before it climbs. You don’t need a large lump sum in the bank to manage this. A flexible, gradually-built buffer and a realistic sense of your own cash flow matter more than a specific number. There’s no single right way to price

We’re a people business – so why did we spend the better part of three years, and a few million pounds, building our own software? Chris Setford, co-CEO of Setfords, on the road to rolling out Halo, and why a law firm decided to become a technology company too.  Let me start where we always start, long before we get

UK’s largest platform law firm has moved all 650 of its consultant lawyers onto a system it designed and built itself. Setfords has launched Halo, what the firm calls a legal intelligence platform – combining case, accounts and practice management – that it designed and built in-house. Halo is now used by every one of

Setfords has been confirmed as the UK’s largest fee-share law firm by lawyer headcount in the Codex Edge Platform Firms Report 2026.  The report, the most comprehensive independent analysis of the platform sector, shows Setfords ended 2025 with 653 consultant lawyers, the highest of any platform firm operating on a pure fee-share model.   The firm has grown its consultant

Setfords has been shortlisted for UK Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2026 – the only platform firm on the category shortlist. The ten shortlisted firms are: Addleshaw Goddard, Brodies, Hill Dickinson, Macfarlanes, Mills & Reeve, Pinsent Masons, Setfords, Stephenson Harwood, Taylor Wessing and TLT. The shortlisting follows a standout year for the firm. Setfords

More talented lawyers are looking beyond the traditional partnership track to build careers that offer greater autonomy, flexibility, and earning potential. Working as a consultant lawyer at a platform law firm is a popular choice, typically offering greater flexibility and earning potential compared to traditional firms. However, consultancy isn’t right for every lawyer. If you’re