Interview with: Stewart Vandermark, Chief executive

Stewart Vandermark is the chief executive of Nelsons, a leading East Midlands law firm with offices in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. He is responsible for strategic oversight of the business, helping to define and embed its purpose, vision and values, while also spearheading a strong workplace culture that empowers both employees and clients.  Here he describes the transformative journey of the firm, the consolidating sector and ensuring the firm remains sharp and agile in an everchanging market.

 

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Nelsons from your competitors?

Each business has a story that shapes and defines who they are. Nelsons opened its doors in 1983 with a passion to do things differently. The legal sector back then was conservative in its approach in all sorts of ways, but from the outset Nelsons had a determination to serve clients its own way. It’s also continually had a forward-looking approach with the courage to lean into the future, understanding that how we worked today is not how we would be working in five or ten years.

Some of the stories from the earlier years reflect a young, ambitious partner group taking on commitments well beyond where they were at but reflected a belief in what Nelsons was doing. I cannot imagine taking some of those decisions now, but it created a rapidly developing business. We have remained focused on our service areas and region throughout, giving us a strength, depth and breadth of expertise to support both businesses and individuals throughout the East Midlands and beyond.

Back in 2018 when I started in my role as chief executive we felt we had lost some of that early identity, so we worked hard to restore it. Since then, we’ve delivered eight years of consecutive year-on-year growth and are on course to reach a record revenue of approaching £35 million this financial year. This growth has never come at the expense of who we are but rather as a result of remaining true to our identity; and a strong focus on creating a culture where individuals can work at their best. This is something we have thought deeply about – growth without a healthy culture is simply unsustainable and this has been integral to our success.

More recently, we have followed our purpose of being a dynamic, forward-looking business not afraid to try new things by becoming part of Lawfront in May 2023. Since then, we’ve accelerated our strategic ambitions, including through several targeted acquisitions and key strategic hires including teams who have joined us in clinical negligence, insolvency and corporate. Acquisitions have always been part of Nelsons’ DNA – but we are highly selective about the firms we acquire. Cultural alignment, operational standards and leadership are key factors we consider to ensure we build for the long term.

 

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

We have invested in our corporate and commercial work, having strengthened our experienced team though the region with acquisitions and team hires at all levels. We can now meet the ongoing demand from owner-managed businesses – whether that is succession planning, restructuring, investment or M&A activity. Consolidation is not reserved for the legal sector; it is shaping many different industries, and clients need advisors who understand both the technical and strategic dimensions of that change, as well as also aligning company values and vision.

Private client work is another area of sustained growth which we have recently strengthened. With an ageing population, increasingly complex family structures and intergenerational transfer of wealth, these all create demand for specialist advice in wills, trusts, probate and estate planning. Clients look to us as advisors to support their affairs now and into the future. The team works closely with our inhouse investment management team, offering clients a holistic approach, which few firms are able to provide.

Our most recent acquisition was of the much-respected conveyancing firm Simpson Jones in November 2025. It further consolidates the regional conveyancing market in the East Midlands and strengthens what was already a leading team. We expect to see this work continue to expand, especially for investor landlords, developers and high value transactions.

 

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

 Our acquisition selections, while supporting the growth of the firm, are also of huge benefit to our existing clients and the clients who join us from the firms that we have acquired. The acquisitions allow us to expand our pool of specialists to offer more to our client base while still providing the personal service that they trust and are used to receiving.

Furthermore, with Lawfront’s backing we have been able to invest more into our operations and technology, enhancing our IT systems, introducing AI, data security, management information and internal processes. This results in greater efficiency for our teams and improved communication for clients. It also allows our lawyers to focus more of their time on client support and advice, rather than on administrative tasks.

 

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Nelsons, throughout its history, has embraced technology to enhance its client offering. We have long worked electronically in a paperless environment to allow us to provide a seamless service to our clients, wherever an individual may be working from.

A dedicated innovation function is now in place across the Lawfront Group which is focused on enhancing the way we design and deliver legal services, leveraging design-thinking principles to create solutions that improve client experiences. This provided us with more capability than we could have achieved independently.

Our commitment to thoughtful and responsible AI adoption remains central to this innovation strategy. Over the past year, we have introduced carefully selected AI-driven tools that streamline legal workflows, ensuring our lawyers can dedicate more time to complex legal work while technology handles repetitive, administrative tasks. These solutions are designed to enhance efficiency, accuracy and service delivery, ultimately benefiting both our lawyers and our clients.

 

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

 In the past year, we have been thinking specifically about how we add value to each client in all our work areas. Whether it’s assisting on a corporate transaction or restructure to ensure the company can be successful for the long term; or helping it resolve a complex, distracting and stressful dispute; or putting in place the legal documentation to ensure the company is best protected against the day to day situations that arise; or assisting the directors plan their personal affairs so they can take control of their life, the services we provide add real value each day to our clients.

 

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

The past three years have seen significant growth for Nelsons and now we are firmly fixed on – and excited for – what the future holds for us. We will remain focused on strengthening our position in the East Midlands as a regional heavyweight, pushing our revenue higher and continuing to invest in our systems and processes that all support delivering a great service to our clients. Acquisitions will continue to form part of our core strategy, with a focus on well-run firms that share our values and ambition from within the region – although we wouldn’t rule out opportunities in adjacent markets if the cultural and strategic fit is right.

Most importantly, in three years’ time I want Nelsons to be recognised not just for its size, but for its culture, its people, its leadership and its client service. This is what truly defines success for us and is what we were built on, and how we have continued to attract and retain highly experienced, specialist lawyers at the top of their field.

Our ambitions are always rooted in purpose – to push boundaries to empower. We are working on our next three-year vision so that each person at Nelsons understands what we want to achieve and how to play their part. With the added investment from Lawfront – which allows us to be at the forefront of the technological changes that are fast approaching – we look forward with confidence.