Property lawyer, Felicity Marsden is the first Taylor Rose consultant to be made a partner of the firm. She joined Taylor Rose with a team of ten colleagues in 2014 to set-up the Cumbria office. The consultancy office is now 25-strong and growing.
It was a big step to move my team to a new firm and set-up as a consultant. As many people will appreciate, setting-up a law firm is an arduous, complicated and costly exercise. Yet the firm I was working in was closing and I didn’t want to lose what I had built as a head of department.
After doing some research I came across Antony Jaggard, Director and Adrian Jaggard, CEO. We discussed their consultancy model, which back then was in its infancy. I had a good feeling about our discussion straight away.
They both had a sharp business acumen, which can sometimes be lacking in lawyers, and they were clear about what they offered. They were equally clear about what was required of their consultants.
I was immediately reassured that Taylor Rose would give me and my team not only the infrastructure to be able to carry on what we were doing, but also the right combination of support and autonomy to grow. I am glad to report that I wasn’t wrong and Taylor Rose has helped me build the office.
I am sure that Adrian and Antony wouldn’t mind me saying that we’ve been the consultancy guinea pigs. When I first joined there was no consultant liaison team as there is today, but we’ve all learnt from each other along the way. I think our operation in Cumbria has helped Taylor Rose realise some of the possibilities for their consultants’ programme and helped shape their thinking. We’ve certainly been on a journey together.
We now have 25 people in our Cumbria office and are growing. I have full autonomy over the office working within the framework of the policies and procedures of Taylor Rose, and operate via my own limited company, employing staff. Taylor Rose provide the professional infrastructure including professional indemnity insurance, case management system, relevant panel memberships and accountancy. Of course, they also provide their brand and reputation, which as a top 75 law firm adds considerable weight to our offer.
There’s also a refreshing degree of informality that I wouldn’t expect from a top 75 law firm. That informality comes from the top but is underpinned by a high degree of honesty and openness across the whole business. The board is totally accessible and is always prepared to listen to new ideas. Earlier this year I had the idea of setting up a consultants’ support service, offering a pay as you go service to other consultants who can access my team to assist them.
It not only ensures that my team is fully utilised, it provides an invaluable and cost-effective option for other Taylor Rose consultants in managing the peaks and troughs of their work. The board were fully behind this and since launching six months ago we’ve had work from about 35 consultants across the firm and that number is growing.
It was such an honour to become the first consultant solicitor to be made a partner at Taylor Rose in 2019. I think it was in recognition of the journey we have been on together. But it also a measure of the way the board thinks about its consultant solicitors. There’s never been a them and us, you’re just part of Taylor Rose, whether you’re an employed solicitor or a consultant solicitor.
From a personal point of view, the move to Taylor Rose has been life enhancing. I have a ten-minute drive to the office, with the sea to one side of me and the lakes to the other.
I enjoy full autonomy over the office and have the flexibility of being able to work around my family, I never have to miss any of the important events at my daughter’s school and that is very important to me. That’s the beauty of being a consultant, the firm is not driven by presenteeism, its driven by service levels and doing a good job. Ultimately the results speak for themselves.
That’s the thing with being a consultant, you have to have the confidence in your own ability and that applies regardless of whether you choose my route of running an office or if you operate as a sole consultant. It’s not for people who expect to sit back and let the work come to them, you have to be hungry enough to go out and get the work.
That’s not to say that Taylor Rose isn’t a source of new business, it is and in fact, about 40% of my work comes from the Taylor Rose network, but that means that 60% doesn’t and so the onus is on me to bring that work in. But given that the rewards are high, and you have the backing of the brand and infrastructure, it works.