Our scale-up journey continues with 42% growth and a commitment to our unique culture

Like the ambitious businesses we support, we too experience the ebb and flow on our growth journey. Navigating this path, we value the shared growth experiences that deepen our connection with our clients. Recognising the significance of celebrating success, we're really pleased to share that we took another leap forward after closing our last financial year with a 42% increase in revenue to £9.8m.

We expanded many of our legal, client services and business support teams over the course of the year and we’re on track to double our team of lawyers by 2025 and increase our turnover to £20m by fiscal year 2026, solely through organic growth.

Founded by Toby Harper in 2014 with a model of senior remote-working lawyers and unique subscription plans, we are now a team of 113 professionals and we have supported over 4,400 businesses. Our people are united in a collective vision of a world in which all viable businesses thrive and contribute to a healthy economy through access to excellent legal services delivered by people who enjoy a true work-life balance.

A great deal of our success is thanks to our unique culture, the relationships we build with our clients and the trust they place in us and our model of legal services. To protect our culture as our business scales rapidly, we undertook a collaborative project earlier this year to authentically articulate our core values and behaviours, which resulted in our ‘Guidebook to working at Harper James’. A firmwide pulse survey revealed that 100% of respondents agreed the values identified resonated strongly with them.

The seven values which underpin our culture are:

1. We practice flexibility without judgement.
2. Everyone feels trusted and supported in every aspect of their job. We can do this because everyone is responsible, productive and wants to succeed.
3. We are relaxed and informal, but super organised. No power-dressing is required, neither is jargon. Say it like it is and do what you say you’ll do.
4. No politics. People don’t feel like they have to get one over on their colleagues to succeed. If people around us succeed, so do we.
5. Humility. We love to celebrate Harper James and each other. There’s no room for big egos though!
6. We recognise the hardest conversations are the ones we should always have. Handled with openness so we can focus on the solution.
7. We make decisions with compassion, integrity and responsibility.

Commenting on our significant growth and unique values, Founder & CEO Toby Harper says:

Achieving financial strength is important for everyone at Harper James and to our clients, particularly in these uncertain times when stability is so important. Reaching our growth targets allows us to continue to invest in new technology and services so we can better serve our clients’ needs and it also enables us to invest even further in our employer proposition for our people.

Founding Harper James, I had a strong desire to offer a genuinely flexible working environment and a culture that would be free of traditional law firm politics. I wanted to allow great people to do the work they love while achieving a true work-life balance and their career ambitions. Distilling our values into words this year was very rewarding and it’s clear that our inclusive and healthy workplace culture has shaped how we work with each other and our clients. It has also proven to be the best foundation for our success, and we are fully committed to protecting our values now and in the future.

Earlier this month, Harper James was named in the inaugural Midlands & East of England Fast Growth 50 Index and the only national commercial law firm included in listings for all regions. The index highlights the fastest-growing companies across six regions based on turnover growth and for making positive contributions to the UK’s business community and economy. We’re in very good company among many other scaling businesses and a number of our great clients were also recognised for their successful growth journeys across the Midlands and London listings.