On 11 March, DWF Group under the leadership of CEO Andrew
Leaitherland and Chairman Sir Nigel Knowles became the first law
firm to IPO on the London Stock Exchange's main market at
market cap of £366 million. The 300 page prospectus1 makes
useful reading about the intersection of technology with the market
for legal services in the UK.
The information in the prospectus on the size and shape of the
market is about as accurate as you can get at the moment: it says
that the global legal services is growing at 4% per year, and was
worth £653bn in 2017, with the USA (£218bn or 33% of
the whole) and the UK (£33.3bn or 5%) holding the top two
spots, and France and Germany next up at £20bn or 3%). From
The Lawyer UK 200 20182, we know that the top 200 UK law
firms generated total revenues of £25.68bn in 2017, so when
DWF, as the no. 23 firm with revenues of £235 million, say
they'll be investing up to £10 million from the IPO in
new IT systems, you realise how powerful these
