Overview
Four decades of legal services from Sheffield
With a reputation spanning four decades, this leading Sheffield-based law firm delivers a broad range of legal services across the UK, from estate planning to conveyancing and financial crime. The practice's departmental breadth is its underlying strength, supported by a growing network of specialist third-party experts.
The Problem
Paid on completion, in a profession where nothing completes on time
Law firms of every focus share a common problem: unpredictable cash flow. Firms are typically paid on successful completion of a case, but legal proceedings are notoriously complex, involving multiple parties, hundreds of documents and lengthy decision-making. Disputes lead to deferred and delayed payments every week, and for multi-discipline practices, weeks or months can pass between the closure cycles of one case and the next, all while administrative costs run on.
With rising demand from new clients, the firm needed working capital to keep investing in growth. The right fit proved elusive: invoice finance suits other industries but struggles with legal work's deferred payments and client verification requirements, while bank loans meant lengthy applications and the risk of unused capital sitting on the balance sheet. The firm needed something that would take days, not months, to set up.
The Solution
Suppliers paid immediately, repayments in instalments
Introduced to Lenkie in early 2024, the firm was set up within days with a credit facility to pay suppliers immediately while splitting repayments into manageable instalments. That let the practice grow its panel of third-party experts and consultants, expanding the range of legal services it can deliver.
The facility is commitment-free, so usage scales up and down with the cyclical nature of the work, and a flexible credit limit leaves the practice free to pursue the most critical cases while maintaining its diversity of work across departments.
The journey
01
Facility live within days of introduction in early 2024
02
Experts and consultants paid immediately, repayments split into instalments
03
Commitment-free scaling: usage rises and falls with the firm's case cycles
"Working with Lenkie has been a game changer for the firm. They help to mitigate the unpredictable nature of legal work. Confident in the knowledge that our working capital is taken care of, we can focus more time growing revenue and capturing opportunities, and less time chasing for payment."
Director, Law Firm
Results
A wider panel of experts, and steadier ground for growth
Through 2024 the firm has grown its network of specialists, ensuring every client concern is handled with speed and accuracy across its departments. With working capital handled, the practice can focus on delivering thorough legal advice and cementing its growth, with each closed case another step in a relationship Lenkie expects to keep scaling.
40 years
of legal practice across the UK
8 months
growing with Lenkie so far
"We continue to hear of small and medium-sized law firms struggling with these issues, both in terms of uncertainty around payment terms from customers as well as challenges accessing finance through high street banks. It's our ambition at Lenkie to make sure every law firm can access fair and flexible funding to support their growth."
Sanjeev Jeyakumar
CEO, Lenkie
Takeaway
Legal work inverts normal cash flow logic: the better and more varied the practice, the lumpier the income, since every discipline settles on its own timetable. A commitment-free facility absorbed that lumpiness, and the firm spent 2024 widening its expert panel instead of chasing payments.
