The 50 UK law firms setting the pace
UK law firms with 20 to 500 staff, from City boutiques to firms across the regions and nations, recognized for how they have grown. Chosen and ranked by the VETTDD editorial team from Companies House filings, firm announcements and directory rankings, October 2026.
Walker Morris
Law firm, Leeds
Turnover rose 14% to £84.3m in the year to April 2025 and staff grew from 423 to 434, according to its Companies House group accounts. The firm then reported fee revenue of £90.2m for the year to April 2026, up 11% and its first year above £90m, with net profit up 11% and 26 promotions. Walker Morris has done it as an independent firm from its Leeds head office, with revenue up 65% since 2020/21 on its own figures.
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Ison Harrison
Law firm, Leeds
Turnover rose 39% to £33.8m in 2025 and average staff grew from 326 to 390, according to Ison Harrison’s Companies House accounts. The employee-owned firm added offices in Brighouse, Skipton and Middlesbrough and bought Armstrong Luty in the same year. In 2026 it opened in Manchester and completed the acquisition of Dootsons, adding three offices and 27 people and taking its network to 30 branches across Yorkshire and the North West.
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Brabners
Law firm, Liverpool
Turnover rose 12% to £60.2m and profit before members’ remuneration rose from £18.1m to £20.3m in the year to April 2025, according to Brabners LLP’s Companies House accounts. Average staff, excluding members, grew from 406 to 444. Led by CEO Robert White and managing partner Nik White, the Liverpool firm opened its fifth office, in the City of London, in 2026, and lists Regional Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2025.
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Stephens Scown
Law firm, Exeter
Turnover rose 13% to £31.1m in the year to April 2025 and staff grew from 299 to 305, according to its Companies House accounts. The firm then reported revenue of £34m for the year to April 2026, up 10%, with a net margin above 35%. Stephens Scown has grown at that pace as an employee-owned business and a certified B Corp since December 2022, with 322 employee owners across offices in Exeter, Truro, Taunton, Bournemouth and London.
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Higgs
Law firm, Brierley Hill
Turnover rose 13% to £25.9m in the year to November 2025 and the people it employs grew from 241 to 266, according to Higgs’s Companies House accounts. The same filing records investment from August Equity in November 2025 to fund growth through M&A. Within seven months the firm bought Vialex, Navigator Employment Law and McKenzie Law in Shrewsbury, and the Legal 500 UK 2027 ranks it in 11 practice areas.
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Flint Bishop
Law firm, Derby
Flint Bishop says revenue passed £43m in the year to April 2026 and that it has roughly doubled in size over two years. Its Companies House accounts show £26.1m of turnover in the nine months to April 2025, when it bought the Walker Morris banking recoveries team. In September 2025 it acquired Lupton Fawcett, adding 83 staff and three Yorkshire offices, and in August 2026 it opened a new Sheffield office. Chambers UK 2026 ranks 11 of its departments.
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Ward Hadaway
Law firm, Newcastle upon Tyne
Turnover rose 12% to a record £53.6m in the year to April 2025, the firm’s fifth consecutive year of revenue growth, and staff excluding members grew from 375 to 413, according to Ward Hadaway’s Companies House accounts. Manchester revenue grew 42%. After the year end the firm opened in Birmingham and merged with The Endeavour Partnership on Teesside, taking it to five offices across the North and the Midlands.
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Blacks Solicitors
Law firm, Leeds
Turnover rose 28% to £21.6m in the year to March 2025 and operating profit grew from £3.0m to £5.5m, according to its Companies House accounts, while average staff rose from 193 to 214. Blacks Solicitors has since been named Law Firm of the Year: Medium at the Yorkshire Legal Awards 2026, said Legal 500 ranked it the most recommended firm in Yorkshire, and is moving into larger Leeds offices to house a team of 240.
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Napthens
Law firm, Preston
Group turnover rose 19% to £26.9m in the year to March 2025 and operating profit nearly doubled to £6.5m, according to Napthens LLP’s Companies House accounts. The Preston firm holds four Top Tier rankings in the Legal 500 UK 2027, for North West commercial litigation, corporate and commercial, and commercial property, and for agriculture and estates, and has been shortlisted again for Mid-Size Law Firm of the Year at the North West Business Insider Dealmakers Awards.
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Porter Dodson
Law firm, Yeovil
Turnover rose 15% from £15.6m to £18m in the year to April 2025 and staff grew from 170 to 187, according to Porter Dodson LLP’s Companies House accounts. The firm reported a second year of growth to April 2026, with 31% of new matters from new clients, and certified as a B Corp in July 2026 with a score of 80.2. It serves families, farms and businesses from seven offices between Exeter and Bridport.
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Stone King
Law firm, Bath
Turnover rose 11.4% to £30.8m and operating profit 24.3% to £9.14m in the year to April 2025, according to its Companies House accounts, with growth in every sector it serves, led by business and social enterprise at 19%. Stone King, founded in Bath in 1785, holds seven top-tier Legal 500 2026 rankings and three Chambers UK Band 1 rankings, and appointed Vicky Brackett as chief executive in January 2025.
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Muckle
Law firm, Newcastle upon Tyne
Turnover rose 8% to £20.6m in the year to March 2026, a fifth consecutive year of growth, and staff grew from 169 to 181, according to Muckle LLP’s Companies House accounts. The Newcastle firm, the first B Corp law firm in the North East, opened a permanent Stockton base in May 2026, won Corporate Law Firm of the Year at the North East Dealmakers Awards for the 10th time and is shortlisted at the Chambers UK Solicitor Awards 2026.
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Howes Percival
Law firm, Northampton
Turnover reached £41.7m in the year to March 2025 and average staff, excluding members, rose from 278 to 304, according to Howes Percival LLP’s Companies House accounts. In the Legal 500 UK 2027 guide the firm has Tier 1 rankings in 13 practice areas and a record 59 ranked lawyers, up from 48. Founded in Towcester in 1790 and chaired by Geraint Davies, it works from seven offices from Manchester to Norwich.
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Kuits
Law firm, Manchester
Turnover rose 20% to £19m in the year to April 2025 and staff grew from 167 to 174, according to its Companies House accounts. In May 2026 Kuits doubled its Manchester office to 22,000 sq ft on a 10-year commitment, citing more national and international clients. Its licensing and private client teams were ranked Tier 1 in the Legal 500 UK 2026, and the firm said it was ranked across all its principal practice areas.
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Lester Aldridge
Law firm, Bournemouth
Group turnover rose 9% to £30.9m in the year to April 2025 and staff grew from 324 to 345, according to its Companies House accounts, with client service staff up from 198 to 214. Lester Aldridge reported high demand across each of its business lines in the year. Tom Alder, a trainee at the firm in 2005, was elected managing partner in March 2025 to lead it from Bournemouth, Southampton and London.
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mfg Solicitors
Law firm, Kidderminster
Turnover rose 16% to £19.8m in the year to April 2026 and the people it employs grew from 197 to 217, according to mfg Solicitors’ group accounts, filed at Companies House in August 2026. The firm, which traces its roots to 1556, serves businesses, farms and families from seven offices across Worcestershire, Shropshire, Birmingham and the Black Country, and in September 2026 announced a move to larger premises at Brierley Hill’s Waterfront.
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Forbes Solicitors
Law firm, Preston
Turnover rose 12% to £25.6m in the year to April 2025 and profit before members’ remuneration grew from £4.7m to £6.2m, according to Forbes Solicitors’ Companies House accounts. In March 2026 it bought e3 employment law, adding three partners and offices in Manchester and Liverpool. Chambers UK 2026 ranks seven of its departments, three of them in Band 1: crime and employment in the North West and financial crime across the regions.
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Anthony Collins Solicitors
Law firm, Birmingham
Revenue grew 6% to £30.2m in the year to April 2025, according to Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP’s Companies House accounts, in a year when the firm raised £900m for clients to fund 3,300 affordable homes and spent 23,000 hours on legal aid. Led by senior partner Matthew Wort, it raised its B Corp score from 81.9 to 101.5 at recertification and holds four Band 1 rankings in Chambers UK 2026.
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