gunnercooke

gunnercooke is a commercial law firm built on a different model from the traditional partnership. Its partners run and grow their own practices on the firm’s platform, and the firm describes them as business owners as well as lawyers. It says the model lets it keep reinvesting in new approaches and technology, rather than distributing profit as a dividend-focused partnership would.

The firm launched in 2010 and now describes itself as a team of more than 600 professionals working from 16 offices in England, Scotland, the US, Germany and Austria, with international teams covering further markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Its clients range from multinationals to not-for-profit organizations; the firm says it has more than 45,000, among them Jet2, DHL and Johnson Matthey.

Founder-owned and led

Darryl Cooke founded the firm and Sarah Goulbourne is co-founder. Both are members of the LLP and its persons with significant control, according to Companies House, which records Cooke as holding 50–75% of the voting rights and Goulbourne 25–50%. The LLP had three members on average in 2025. Around them sits a central team that includes a global finance director, a compliance director, an IT director and a non-executive director.

Turnover up 16% in 2025

Group turnover rose 16% from £75.1m to £86.9m in the year to December 2025, according to the consolidated accounts filed at Companies House in October 2026. Most of it, £78.8m, was earned in the firm’s home market, with £1m from North America and £7.1m from the rest of the world.

Because most of its lawyers run their own practices rather than sit on the payroll, the firm’s employed headcount is small for its turnover. The average number of employees, all in administration, rose from 77 to 85 over the year, and wages and salaries rose from £2.9m to £5.1m.

The firm is authorized and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 546420. Its next accounts, for the year to December 2026, are due by 30 September 2027.