For experienced lawyers considering a move
Five years to equity.
Five years of your billings.
Someone else is keeping them.
We do things differently here
Most partnership tracks ask you to wait. This guide sets out what changes when there is no ladder left to climb.
Top 75
UK law firm
£100m
Global revenue
+91
Net Promoter Score
650+
Lawyers globally
Why this guide exists
The questions change before the numbers do.
Most partnership tracks ask you to wait. Five years. Eight years. Sometimes longer. Every one of those years, you are billing at senior-lawyer rates but getting paid on a track designed for someone earlier in their career. Your share of what you bill stays capped at the level the ladder allows.
That is not a delay — it is a cost. Five years of billings, five years of your share going to someone else. And the gap does not close later, it just moves further away. This guide sets out what changes when the ladder is removed entirely.
01
What changes, what stays
The practical mechanics of running your own practice.
02
What you earn
The tiered fee share model, and where to run the full numbers.
03
How a move happens
A confidential, five-step process — nothing moves without your agreement.
What changes
Your practice belongs to you.
Self-employed advisor
You run your practice as your own, through your own limited company, contracting with gunnercooke to provide legal services. Company formation support is available.
No timesheets
No internal billing targets either, less time spent on internal process, more time with clients.
No mandatory retirement age
No partners’ committee deciding when a career should narrow. Stay in charge of your practice for as long as you choose, on the same terms.
Published thresholds
What you earn is fixed, transparent and known in advance. Not lockstep, not tenure, not a practice group you do not control.
What stays the same
The client relationship stays with you
Clients do not hire a structure. The senior lawyer who wins the work is the one who does the work, with no institutional machinery in between.
£100m PI insurance
Included from day one, alongside the recognition of a Top 75 UK firm.
gcTrust sits behind your practice
Finance, compliance, IT, marketing, business development and partner services — a team of more than 100 built around the needs of experienced lawyers. You own the practice. The weight of the firm sits behind it.
Support and tools from the start
Five hours of complimentary secretarial support on joining, and firmwide access to a Tech Marketplace of leading legal AI tools.
What you earn
The more you generate, the more you keep.
That is the founding principle of the model. Partners retain between 70% and 90% of everything they bill. What you earn reflects what you generate. Not tenure. Not lockstep. Not the performance of other practice groups.
Band one
70%
On fees up to £375,000
Band two
75%
On fees from £375,000 to £550,000
Band three
90%
On fees above £550,000
Indexed annually
Thresholds rise each year in line with inflation, so the number does not quietly fall behind you.
£3,000 plus VAT, once
A one-off setup fee, payable in instalments and only once billing begins. Nothing to pay before you are earning.
Nothing to negotiate
The thresholds are fixed and transparent. You know exactly where you stand before anything is agreed.
Try it on your own numbers
£
You would retain
£356,250
71.3% of billings
Curious what this looks like against your own billings? Run the full breakdown, tier by tier, on the earnings calculator.
Two sliders. Takes under a minute.
Questions worth asking before you decide
Ask these now, not afterwards.
Will my clients follow me?
Client relationships usually sit with the lawyer, not the letterhead. gunnercooke gives that relationship a serious platform: £100m revenue, 50,000+ clients, £100m PI insurance, recognised lawyers and a +91 Net Promoter Score.
Will I lose the support of a traditional firm?
No. The support is built differently. gcTrust covers finance, compliance, IT, marketing, business development and partner services, with more than 100 professionals behind the practice.
Do I have to bring a team?
No. Partners can join individually or bring their team. The model supports both.
How quickly can I start billing?
Many partners are able to start quickly. A pre-configured laptop is delivered before your start date, and file openings typically complete within one working day once onboarding is complete.
How is the structure set up?
Partners operate through their own limited company, which contracts with gunnercooke to provide legal services. Company formation support is available.
What if the timing is not right?
Then the conversation will tell you that too.
Still have questions? The fastest way to answer them is a direct conversation, not another page.
Confidential. Off the record. No pitch decks.
Your next move
Your practice is not a CV.
It is clients, matters, colleagues, fee arrangements, conflicts, histories and trust built over years. Moving it is treated as a serious professional decision, not a recruitment process to be hurried along. Nothing moves into process until both sides can see a reason to continue. Nothing goes further without your agreement.
01
Introduction
A confidential conversation with the recruitment team, off the record. No process starts until there is something worth discussing.
02
Practice conversation
A discussion about the practice: what it looks like today, where it is going next, and whether gunnercooke is the right platform for it.
03
Business plan
Not a generic outline document. It is built together using the Vision Traction Organiser (VTO) process, a collaborative approach that turns your ambitions into a shared, working commitment.
04
Offer and terms
Clear, transparent terms with a fixed fee structure. Nothing to negotiate on the fundamentals, so you know exactly where you stand.
05
Onboarding
A pre-configured laptop delivered before your start date. File openings are typically completed within one working day, so billing starts fast.
At a glance
High calibre. Deeply human.
650+
Lawyers globally
16
Offices worldwide
£100m
Global revenue
+91
Net Promoter Score
50,000+
Clients globally
<6%
Partner attrition rate
30%
Of revenue from referrals
100+
gcTrust support staff
“
I describe my practice as a business within a business. I have the support behind me, but the flexibility and autonomy to manage my own team and clients the way I want to.
Shilpen Savani
Employment and Dispute Resolution Partner
What partners say
In their words, not ours.
“
You cannot overstate the power of the network. It feels like an engine room of motivated self starters who have no fear of sharing knowledge and contacts. Cross-selling is baked into the model — it actually works for once.
Simon Etchells
Real Estate Partner, Scotland
“
I describe my practice as a business within a business. I have the support behind me, but the flexibility and autonomy to manage my own team and clients the way I want to.
Shilpen Savani
Employment and Dispute Resolution Partner
Your next move
Let’s talk.
The first conversation is about your practice. What it looks like today. Where it could go next. What you would need to make the move work. That’s all.
Start a conversation
Skip the wait.
A short, confidential application. Tell us about your practice and we will come back within 24 hours.
Confidential. Your details are held only by the gunnercooke recruitment team and are never shared externally.
Not ready to speak?
Run the numbers instead →