Ashley and Hayden Cooke join gunnercooke as Chiefs of Staff as it celebrates 15th year of growth

gunnercooke has announced the addition of Ashley and Hayden Cooke, sons of Founder Darryl Cooke, to its Leadership Team. The brothers join as Chiefs of Staff, supporting with the business’s fast growth and charitable foundation. Their initial role will be to immerse themselves in the business and culture with the vision of driving forward the firm’s key projects to spearhead growth and innovation. 

Ashley Cooke began his career as a management consultant at PwC working with large multinationals, and most recently worked at Nous Group, a boutique consultancy focused on delivering positive influence. Hayden Cooke is a lawyer by background, starting life in the corporate team at Slaughter and May, before spending the last five years as General Counsel in venture-backed, fast growth, tech-for-good businesses.

Darryl Cooke said: “With a consistent rate of growth of 15-20% year on year, gunnercooke is growing at a pace that will soon cement it as a top 25 legal and professional services firm. 15 years in, it’s clear we have established ourselves as a Top 75 law firm. Looking now to the next 15 years, I have huge ambitions for gunnercooke, both in legal services, wider professional services, and in philanthropy.

 “I have considered the options for how we accelerate this growth while remaining true to our culture.Our view has always been that building upon the culture that we set out to create is a big part of who we are. It has been our ambition from gunnercooke’s early days to place our community and people at the heart of what we do. I’m therefore thrilled to welcome my sons to continue driving this culture into the next generation.”

Ashley Cooke added: “I knew the culture was central to the firm’s reason for being, but it’s hard to know what that really looks like until you see it up close. I’ve been delighted to find gunnercooke really lives up to it.  

“As a management consultant I’ve spent a lot of time understanding the challenges that businesses face and advising on the solutions to take them to the next level. I’m looking forward to bringing some of this thinking to gunnercooke, to help the firm deliver for clients, partners, and society as it scales up. The next 15 years look very exciting!”

Hayden Cooke added: “I’m really excited to be joining gunnercooke, a business Ashley and I have followed so closely over the last 15 years. Having spent my career initially in private practice and then in-house, I’ve seen first-hand how unhappy some law firms can be. I love that the model is about delivering better outcomes for clients and giving lawyers the ability to design their own lives, all whilst trying to operate as a deeply responsible business. gunnercooke is hugely ambitious and rightly so given the size and importance of the opportunity. I’ve spent the last five years in venture-backed scale-ups, so understand both the excitement and pressures that come with rapid growth and can hopefully support the business as it navigates those challenges.”