"Quasi-virtual" practice offers alternative for ex-big firm lawyers

Tim Summers studied English at UCL, before converting to law and qualifying at Simmons & Simmons.  He left the City for Bristol a few years later, first to work for Burges Salmon and then a smaller firm where he was made a partner.  He and two colleagues set up their own firm (Temple Bright) in 2010.  The firm operates a streamlined model based on technology, with only senior lawyers and the promise of “City quality advice to growing businesses”.  The firm’s culture is informal and offers autonomy and flexibility.  In just over a year Temple Bright has gone from three to seven lawyers, and two more are to join soon.  You can read about it below and meet Tim and the other partners in two short films on the firm’s website here.

mtl:  Hi, please can you tell us about your legal career pre-Temple Bright?

Tim:  I joined Simmons & Simmons as a trainee in 1997 and qualified into the Commercial group.  I enjoyed being on the cutting edge, both in my work and living in the capital generally, but after a couple more years I wanted to get away from the long commutes and high property prices.  I chose Bristol.  It’s still fairly close to London but is near lovely countryside.  It has an independent centre with its own identity, there's a lot of commercial activity and there are some very good law firms.  I looked at the various firms in the city and applied to Burges Salmon, who took me on in 2002.

In time I became interested in the South West business community and in getting more involved in that as a lawyer.  Burges Salmon is active locally, but many of its clients are national and international and the deals are often City-size in their scale.  After many years of working on large projects for PLCs and the public sector, interspersed with the odd smaller deal for entrepreneurs, I realised that I preferred the cut and thrust of the latter.

So in 2004 I moved from Burges Salmon to a mid-sized Bristol firm, where I later became a partner.  Through this move I got to know the local market and got far closer to the workings of a law firm.  I had learned technical legal skills in the bigger firms but these aspects were both mostly new to me.  On the legal side I started doing corporate work as well as commercial contracts, which was a useful addition given what ultimately followed.

mtl:  How did Temple Bright come about and how is it different to a “traditional” firm?

Tim:  I had never planned to set up a practice but the idea behind Temple Bright flowed naturally from what we were observing in the market.  We saw a lot of clients getting fed up with how commercial law firms operate, especially unlimited charging based on hourly rates, and partners delegating to juniors with the resulting duplication of work and cost through supervision.  So Temple Bright was created to address these issues.  We have only senior lawyers so there can be no delegation.  Experienced lawyers and reduced overheads mean we can offer lower and more certain fees than most of our competitors.  We achieve the cost savings through technology, using online providers for a lot of the functions traditionally carried on by staff in bigger firms. 

We think we are a breath of fresh air for clients.  We also aim to be a breath of fresh air for lawyers.  Those joining us have generally been partners or senior associates in large commercial firms but no longer want to work in that environment.  Temple Bright’s culture is the opposite.  There is no hierarchy and our structure avoids the need for billing targets or pressure from management.  Our lawyers can work the hours and locations that best suit them and their clients.  Everyone has a desk at the office but can choose to work from home.  Paradoxically given the relaxed culture, the financial rewards are excellent and generally people are earning more than in their previous roles.

mtl:  What is a typical Temple Bright client and deal?

Our clients are generally owner managed businesses who fall within the broad term “SME”, although increasingly we are acting for larger organisations which use Temple Bright for what we would call their “SME work” – essentially, transactions up to a particular value without sector specific regulation.  But even where a deal involves practice areas that we don’t handle, we can outsource only those elements to another, often larger firm.  Clients are very open to this as it means they have us coordinating the process, choosing the best third party lawyers for the job and helping to manage costs.

We currently handle transactions from the very small up to around £20 million, for which you don’t generally need a large team to run the data room and such like.  In due course we may find we are taking on larger jobs, in which case we will adopt the approach which works best in that context.  That might also involve outsourcing elements of legal work.  We already outsource functions such as bundling, copying and scanning.

We are sometimes asked if it is economical to use a senior lawyer on every aspect of a job.  For the size of deal I have mentioned, we think it is.  The hourly rates on which we base our prices are lower than those of most partners in commercial firms.  Any extra cost per hour arising from the absence of juniors is more than compensated for by the efficiency of an experienced person who knows every aspect of the deal.

mtl:  Would you describe yourselves as a “virtual firm”?

I would say we’re half virtual, half traditional – perhaps that we’re quasi-virtual!  We’re what the IT people would call “clicks and mortar”.  Like the typical virtual firm we use technology and offer our lawyers flexibility and autonomy.  Like the best traditional firms we have a unified message and way of working, we have a preferred client profile and work type and we have a physical office which is the Temple Bright HQ for clients and lawyers alike.  There is a definite internal culture and people work in teams and market themselves together.  It seems difficult to achieve all this with a wholly virtual firm where people rarely meet face to face.  Our model aims to achieve the best of both worlds.

mtl:  What kind of lawyers are you seeking to attract?

We are looking for lawyers with five or more years’ PQE in good firms, who have the ability to inspire confidence and build their own practice.  They will be people who enjoy advising clients but not the extra hoops that exist for many lawyers in big firms – whether that’s supervision, internal meetings or simply “face time” at your desk.  At the other end of the spectrum, some of our lawyers have been in practice as principals or have considered it, but don’t want to deal with all the administrative hurdles.  In either case Temple Bright strips out the non-essentials and management, allowing you to plug in your laptop and get on with the job you have trained to do. 

Currently we handle corporate, commercial, litigation, property and employment work.  We are always on the lookout for more specialists in those areas and in related fields.  Also, we have substantially expanded beyond our South West roots and we are happy to consider people based further afield.  Location is not necessarily a limiting factor.

mtl:  Do you have any advice for our readers? 

Tim:  For anyone considering starting their own business: understand the value of face to face meetings and following these up.  Networks are everything.  At Temple Bright we conduct a lot of our meetings in the rather elegant upstairs room of a coffee shop around the corner, which appears briefly in our lawyer film.  Our mantra is “let’s have coffee!”

And for those interested in joining Temple Bright, watch the two films on our website to get a feel for our culture – then give me a call so we can arrange that coffee.

mtl:  Thanks for your time Tim. 

You can see the Temple Bright website here

You can see two short films about being a lawyer with or a client of Temple Bright here

You can contact Tim Summers at or on 07581 225804 

If you know any other lawyers who have gone and done something interesting or unusual with their lives or who have a great work/life balance then please get in touch.

WITHIN LAW

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