The founders
Spencer West was founded in 2014 when City of London lawyers Simeon Spencer and Antoine West found themselves on opposite sides of a transaction. The entrepreneurial pair discovered a shared set of values and a vision for how a traditional law firm could evolve to offer more, not just for its clients, but for its lawyers as well. What followed has led to Spencer West developing as a leading City of London, UK-wide and international law firm operating in the fee-sharing space, with a strong sense of community, valuing collaboration at its heart, with an entrepreneurial soul and a continued drive towards excellence.
Forming Spencer West LLP
In 2014, Simeon and Antoine found themselves on opposite sides of a corporate transaction. They quickly realised that they shared the same outlook and values – both coming from a corporate background but with an entrepreneur’s zeal to find new and better way of doing things, more flexibly and with a greater focus on what is important. They collaborated and after a couple of years, Antoine merged his legal practice with the firm.
Community of Talent
In mid–2018 Antoine and Simeon carried out a review of their plans for the firm. The firm at that stage was a successful, two Partner City law firm, profitable, with a strong ethos and a loyal and growing client base, with many clients going back 8–10 years.
The founders saw the opportunity to open the firm up to colleagues from excellent legal backgrounds and proven expertise, who also were business people and collegiate so that there would be strong shared values.
They looked at all sorts of business models for the firm and concluded that a modified fee–sharing model was the best approach. The model takes the best elements of the traditional firm and the best elements of the last generation ‘disruptor’ law firms, to create a new integrated type of firm, that originates from the firm’s values. This type of firm attracts legal experts regardless of the size of their practice, gives flexibility to its lawyers and provides support in the areas that matter, including 21st century marketing support.
Growth of Spencer West
The firm’s focus on technical excellence, a business-person’s approach and collaborative spirit, has proved a strong draw to numerous talented lawyers.
In October 2018, the firm’s lawyers comprised the two founding Partners. By 2023, the firm has grown to some 260 Partners, and has been attracting lawyers not only in the City of London, but across all regions of the UK and in multiple overseas jurisdictions.
The firm is on track to have significant capability in offices across different regions of the UK, across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They are on track to open in the US by 2024. The firm has its City of London office, and branches across the UK including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands. Across Europe, the firm has opened offices in Germany, Belgium and Spain and is set to open shortly in France. Internationally, the firm has offices in the UAE, BVI, Bahamas, Cyprus, Cayman and Bermuda and South Africa, with associations with firms in Hong Kong and Singapore as they progress their application with the local regulators to set up their own offices.
Antoine and Simeon are passionate about expanding the law firm across the UK and internationally to become a global community of lawyers, in the spirit of multiplying the opportunities for all our lawyers right across the firm. The firm’s vision is to attract a global community of talent that reaches across borders and embraces differences in culture, language, and jurisdictions, where lawyers are empowered to work collaboratively and flexibly anywhere in the world, coming together as one so that all can flourish.