Finance for Firms: How Lenkie resolves the cashflow challenge for legal practices in the UK

With a reputation spanning the last four decades, a leading solicitors firm based in Sheffield has been delivering legal services across all areas of the law and the UK. The practice has worked with Lenkie over the last eight months to unlock flexible working capital, take control of administrative costs, and drive consistent wins for their clients. Take a look below to discover how Lenkie’s credit facility continues to sharpen the competitive edge for this fast-growing law firm.

The Legal Landscape 

Despite the variety of focus areas and practice types, many UK law firms today are subject to a common problem: unpredictable cash flow. This makes it incredibly hard for ambitious firms to  invest in growth. 

Firms are often paid on the successful completion of a given case. However, legal proceedings are notoriously complex, often depending on multiple parties, hundreds of documents, and a lengthy decision-making process. The intricacy often leads to disputes, resulting in many deferred and delayed payments for firms to tackle every week.

The complexity goes even further for practices that operate across multiple disciplines. From estate planning to conveyancing and financial crime, it can mean weeks or months between the closure cycles of one case to the next. Although this offers a huge benefit for clients, the variety can present a consistent cashflow challenge for firms when set against ongoing administrative costs. 

With a burgeoning reputation and rising demand from new customers, our customer needed access to working capital to continue investing in their growth trajectory. Although options were plenty, the right fit proved challenging to find. While popular in other industries, invoice finance is often unsuitable for law, given the frequency of deferred payments and the need to verify invoices with customers. Bank loans come with lengthy application processes and the risk of unused capital sitting on balance sheets. Our client needed a more flexible and practical option which would take days - not months - to set up.

How Lenkie Helped 

The firm was introduced to Lenkie’s credit facility near the start of 2024. Within days they were set up with a dashboard to pay suppliers immediately, whilst splitting the repayments into manageable instalments. This proved an ideal solution for the practice, who have since been able to grow their panel of third-party experts and consultants, allowing them to swiftly develop technology and deliver an even broader range of legal cases. Moreover, Lenkie’s facility is commitment-free, meaning the firm can scale usage up and down depending on the cyclical nature of work they take on.

Combined with a flexible credit limit, the practice is free to pursue and deliver on the most critical cases whilst maintaining their incredible diversity of work across departments.

Justice for All

With a steady stream of business through 2024, the firm looks to cement growth by continuing to deliver thorough and resourceful legal advice for its clients. The practice’s broad departmental scope continues to be its underlying strength, supported with a growing network of specialists to ensure that every concern is met with accuracy and haste. With each case closed, Lenkie looks forward to scaling our credit facility with this firm and others across the UK.