Good work is what
clients need.
Not a number.
Strong advice. Trusted relationships. But the firm may still reduce your contribution to a number: hours, utilisation or target.
Not utilisation.
When targets shape the work.
Reporting time takes you away from clients and relationships. Here is the shift.
Reduced to a number
Hours, utilisation and targets can flatten a complex practice into a report.
Time taken from relationships
Every hour spent explaining activity is time not spent developing clients.
Judged on the work
gunnercooke is built around the practice you build — not a target set for you.
The point is not less accountability. It is a different definition of success.See what this model could look like for your practice.
Talk confidentially →Good work is what clients need — not a number that stands in for it.
Hours, utilisation and billing targets exist to satisfy a firm’s financial model, not a client’s need. They are tools for forecasting revenue, setting partner draws and managing associate ratios.
gunnercooke was built on a different premise: experienced lawyers should be judged on the quality of their work and their client relationships, not a number set by a committee.
Partners own their practice through their own limited company and contract with the firm to provide legal services. There is no internal target to feed. What you build is yours to decide.
Your practice
Choose the work, clients and direction that fit the practice you want to build.
Judged on outcomes
Set your own priorities without a firm-imposed billing number defining a good year.
A useful first step
Start with a confidential conversation about where you are and what you want next.
What changes when the number steps back?
The model is not different for the sake of being different. It is different so you can spend more of your attention on clients, practice and life.
More time with clients
Less internal admin and fewer mandatory meetings competing with the work that matters.
Judged on your practice, not a target
Build around the clients and matters you want to pursue, without a target imposed from above.
More room to choose
Shape a good year around your own ambitions, priorities and definition of success.
Want to see what it looks like for you?
A short, confidential conversation is the fastest way to work it through.
The practical questions matter.
Before you talk, you should know what the first conversation is for — and what it is not.
We can explain the structure, economics and practical steps in a confidential conversation, based on your practice and circumstances. The aim is to help you decide whether the model is right for you — not to rush you into a decision.
We will talk through the platform, infrastructure and support available to partners, and how those elements could work with the practice you want to build.
Client relationships are an important part of the conversation. We can discuss your current practice, your clients and the practical considerations involved in moving to a different model.
Yes. The first conversation is confidential and exploratory, with no obligation to proceed. Your enquiry stays with the gunnercooke recruitment team.
A member of the recruitment team will reply within 24 hours. They will arrange an introductory conversation at a time that works around your practice.
Let’s talk about your practice.
Tell us where you are now and what you want next. We will come back within 24 hours to arrange a confidential, no-pressure conversation.
Talk confidentially about your practice
Share a few details so we can make the first conversation useful.