Big Four, professional-services firm KPMG is planning to double the size of its British legal practice.

The firm has already announced plans to grow its Irish legal branch from 60 to 160 within three years.

Set up in 2014, KPMG Law in Britain now plans to employ 400 solicitors by the end of 2024.

Nick Roome, head of the firm in Britain, told the Gazette of the Law Society of England and Wales that the business had 170 solicitors in 2021, and is currently pushing 250.

KPMG Law’s revenue has also grown by 80% in the past two financial years, he said.

Value perception

“The perception of the value we can bring to clients has really changed,” he added, commenting that the legal market had changed during his nine years in the KPMG job.

Clients often do not know all the parts they need when they embark on fundamental changes to their organisation, and “that plays to the advantage of a firm like us”, he said.

In 2019, Arthur Cox Managing Partner Geoff Moore commented that the Big Four consulting firms were a looming competitor to large Irish legal practices.