Summary: Platform law is a law firm business model where solicitors work as self-employed consultants under the umbrella of a regulated law firm. They use it’s support infrastructure, compliance, insurance, and brand while keeping control of their own clients, hours, and earnings. It’s a structural alternative to the traditional partnership model, and it’s one of the fastest-growing areas of the UK legal sector.
What is platform law?
Ask most people outside the legal profession how a law firm works, and they’ll describe something close to the traditional model: a building, a hierarchy of partners and associates, fixed salaries, and a single brand that clients deal with from first enquiry to final invoice. For decades, that was the only real option for lawyers.
Platform law works differently. Rather than employing solicitors directly, a platform law firm provides the regulatory and operational infrastructure. That includes SRA authorisation, professional indemnity insurance, compliance oversight, billing systems, IT, marketing support and a recognised brand.
Solicitors join as self-employed consultants. They bring their own clients (or build a new client base) and manage their own caseload and working hours. Instead of a salary, they keep an agreed percentage of the fees they bill, and the firm retains the rest to cover the support it provides.
In effect, platform law separates two things that used to be bundled together: the practice of law and the running of a law firm. Solicitors keep doing the former. The platform handles the latter.
It’s sometimes described using shorthand from other industries, such as “the Uber of law” or a “law firm as a service” model, though neither fully captures the model’s nuance. A more accurate comparison is closer to how some financial advisers or estate agents operate: self-employed professionals trading under a recognised, regulated brand, with the firm providing the scaffolding and the professional providing the expertise and client relationships.
How the platform model actually works
At a practical level, a consultant solicitor operating within a platform firm typically has:
- Regulatory cover: the platform holds SRA authorisation, so consultants can practise compliantly without setting up their own regulated entity
- Professional indemnity insurance and risk management: provided and managed centrally
- Business infrastructure: case management systems, billing and accounts, IT, and often a national or international brand behind them
- Administrative and secretarial support: help with day-to-day tasks such as file opening, document preparation, scanning and digitising paperwork, and managing incoming post. Support teams often use the platform’s case management system to keep matters on track, so consultants can spend more of their time on legal work. The level of support varies between platform firms.
- Marketing and lead generation support: varying by platform law firm, from light-touch brand presence to active business development support
- Autonomy: control over their own hours, caseload, fee structure (within firm policy), and often the freedom to work from home, a shared office, or wherever suits them
In return, the consultant gives up a portion of their billings to the firm and keeps the rest, rather than receiving a fixed salary. Earnings are directly tied to what they bill, which is the single biggest structural difference from a traditional legal role.
This isn’t the same as working as a freelance solicitor, who is also regulated by the SRA but takes personal responsibility for obligations such as professional indemnity insurance. Platform solicitors are still bound by the same SRA rules, professional conduct requirements, and client protections as any solicitor at a traditional firm. The platform holds the SRA authorisation, PII and client account, so consultants have freedom over how they run their practice without taking on that regulatory set-up themselves.
Why platform law has grown
Platform law has been around for some time, and Setfords has operated as a platform firm for nearly 20 years. What’s changed is how quickly the model has grown in recent years, for several reasons:
- Remote and flexible working became normalised. Once client meetings, case management, and even court hearings could happen remotely, the physical office stopped being a prerequisite for practising law.
- Overheads in traditional firms kept rising. Office space, support staff, and layered management structures are expensive. These costs are ultimately absorbed into billing rates or squeezed from associate compensation.
- Experienced solicitors wanted more control. Many senior solicitors and partners have client relationships which have been built over years. The platform law firm model lets them keep those relationships and the value they generate, rather than that value sitting largely with the firm.
The result is that platform law has gone from a niche alternative to a popular, well-established option in the UK legal market for clients and lawyers alike.
Dispelling the myths about platform law
Because the model is still relatively new to many solicitors, some misconceptions persist. Here are the most common ones, and the reality behind them.
Myth: “It’s essentially freelancing. You’re on your own.”
Reality: Consultants operate within a regulated firm, with compliance, PII, IT, and often marketing support behind them. The difference from being employed is commercial (how you’re paid, how much control you have), not a loss of professional support or infrastructure, though what this looks like and the amount provided varies from firm to firm.
Myth: “There’s no support or community, so you lose the office camaraderie.”
Reality: This varies by firm, but some platform firms actively build networks including regional meet-ups, practice-area groups, mentoring, and internal referral networks, precisely because isolation is a common concern solicitors raise before joining.
Myth: “You have to bring a huge existing client base to make it work.”
Reality: It helps, but it’s not a prerequisite everywhere. Some platform firms, including Setfords, actively support consultants in building a client base from scratch through marketing, referrals, and brand visibility.
Myth: “Platform firms will take on any lawyer.”
Reality: Entry criteria vary between platform firms, and many set a high bar for the solicitors they take on. Setfords only accepts solicitors with at least 5 years’ post-qualification experience (PQE), so every consultant on the platform is an experienced, established lawyer. That standard protects the quality of work across the platform and the reputation every consultant practises under.
Myth: “It’s where lawyers go to retire.”
Reality: Far from winding down, many consultants join to grow. Setfords consultants join at many different points in their careers, from ambitious solicitors looking for a different path to senior lawyers ready to build something of their own. Many also value having more flexibility and a better work-life balance than a traditional role often allows.
Who does the platform model suit?
Platform law tends to appeal most to:
- Experienced solicitors with an established client base or referral network who want to capture more of the value they generate
- Solicitors seeking flexibility around location, hours, or work-life balance without stepping away from practising law
- Those frustrated by traditional firm politics or hierarchy, who want more direct control over how they work
- Solicitors exploring a lower-risk route to self-employment, without the cost and regulatory burden of setting up their own firm from scratch
- Solicitors ready for a fresh start, who still love the law but want to practise it in a completely different way
It’s less commonly a fit for newly qualified solicitors still building foundational experience, or those who specifically want the structure, training, and progression path of a traditional associate track.
Where Setfords fits
Setfords was one of the first platform law firms in the UK, and has been refining the model since its founding in 2006. Today, more than 650 lawyers practise on the platform, and Setfords has been the top hirer in the industry for the last three years.
That growth has been recognised widely. In 2025, Setfords was named the fastest-growing law firm in The Lawyer UK Top 100, and was the only law firm in the Financial Times European Organic Growth Champions. It’s also been a Sunday Times Best Place to Work three years running.
Clients rate Setfords 4.9 stars on Trustpilot and ReviewSolicitors, across more than 16,000 reviews. That makes it one of the highest-rated law firms in the UK, and the highest-rated platform law firm.
What sets Setfords apart is the support behind you, on a scale few platform firms can match. A 190+ strong support team covers admin, secretarial, compliance, marketing and business development. Setfords was also the first platform firm to create a dedicated Lawyer Wellbeing team.
Your practice runs on industry-leading technology, including HALO, Setfords’ own case management system built in-house. All of this is included in the fee split, with no extra charges.
If you’re weighing up whether platform law could work for you, arrange a confidential call. We’ll talk through what becoming a consultant could look like for you and answer any questions you have.
