O’Neill Patient ranked #98 in The Lawyer Top 100

Specialist conveyancer achieves highest RPL of all firms.

O’Neill Patient LLP (ONP) group is now a top 100 UK law firm, with the highest income per lawyer of any law firm in the country – significantly exceeding the six largest legal firms.

The award-winning Stockport-based business has entered the rankings of best performing legal firms at #98 in the annual list from The Lawyer - the most prestigious legal trade magazine in the country.

However, its acquisition of Cavendish Legal Group in March would have seen them placed in the top 70 had it come in time for the publication’s compilation. It was the first of two acquisitions of the year with the second, Conveyancing Alliance Limited (CAL) group, having just been completed.

The non-traditional conveyancer has developed a new business model to challenge conventional practices and invested heavily in technology to do away with what it sees as ‘arcane processes’ associated with the legal sector. And despite the headwinds brought about by the events of 2020, ONP’s laser focus on customer service, speed and quality means it has achieved an average turnaround time of 56 days compared to the market average of 139 days.

The Lawyer also highlighted that ONP’s revenue per lawyer (RPL) is the highest of all Top 100 firms.

Arthur Sants and Matt Byrne writing in The Lawyer’s daily newsletter Horizon said: “Behold, a firm with a higher RPL than Slaughters. ONP’s RPL is £1.74m. That is almost double Slaughter and May’s £935,000 and £1m or more ahead of Freshfields (£782,000), Clifford Chance (£725,000), Allen & Overy (A&O, £692,000) and Linklaters (£665,000).

“How come? Simple. ONP is a non-traditional firm. It relies on technology and paralegals to streamline the conveyancing process. Conveyancing has been one of the first areas of legal work to be successfully automated due to the relatively simple and repeatable nature of the work. ONP has capitalised on this, generating 60 per cent growth over the last five years from £19.4m to £31m.”

ONP’s appearance in the Top 100 follows years of technological development where they have been able to automate a number of processes. Following the achievements and growth in 2020 it has ambitions to become the largest specialist conveyancer in the UK during 2021.

Andy Scaife, CEO at ONP Group, says: “It is testament to the hard work of all our colleagues here at ONP, and the relationships with our brokers and introducing partners, that we’ve reached The Lawyer’s Top 100 for the first time.

“It’s also a real positive for the business to have achieved the highest revenue per lawyer of any other legal firm in the country, thanks to our investment in technology making the whole process quicker, more efficient and of the highest quality.

“But rather than the culmination of our success, this really represents the start of our growth story.

“Our mission over the coming years is to revolutionise the conveyancing business, to do away with many of the outdated practices associated with this sector and bring it into the 21st century.

“People want and expect to do much more via apps and for processes to be automated for efficiency, and that is what we are delivering, in order to enhance our award-winning customer service.”

Published: 17 December 2020