IBB Law gives confident outlook for 2023

IBB Law is growing its Reading office after a major merger and brimming with better ways to serve its clients and staff.

Creating virtual courtrooms at its offices, using artificial intelligence software to handle due diligence work and encouraging diversity are just some of the advances IBB Law is pursuing to enhance its legal services.

The firm has hardly paused for breath during the last couple of Covid-impacted years. It converted to a more business-focused limited liability partnership structure and opened a new and fast-growing office in Reading just as the pandemic struck. Merger discussions with Slough-based commercial law specialist Owen White that began during lockdown will come to fruition on 1 January 2023.

You could argue that such transformational changes couldn’t have come at a worse time as the pandemic threw business-as-usual into turmoil. But the effort has paid off, believes Managing Partner Joanna DeBiase (pictured above). And it is timely, as it puts the firm on a strong commercial footing just as the shadow of recession looms. A clutch of awards for its corporate deals and property sector work in the Thames Valley demonstrate that IBB Law’s approach resonates positively in the market.

“Like every small business, we are assessing our resilience to recession, but with these recent changes in place, we feel confident. We offer a broad range of legal services rather than being a niche provider, which I think helps us to cope better with economic uncertainty,” she said.

Virtually better

IBB Law was fleet of foot when the pandemic struck as it was already working on Microsoft365 and just had to switch on Teams to handle the lockdown demands of remote working. It was just a question of equipping employees with laptops and switching all telephony services through Teams.

“This has revolutionised the way we work,” she said. “Now we have returned to offices, we encourage staff to work from wherever is most convenient for them. This approach fits in with our policy not to report profit and loss on a site-by-site basis, which can lead people to get a bit tribal and not share work and ideas with other offices.”

The firm is now planning how technology can transform the client experience during often stressful court-related matters, with a virtual courtroom due to be trialled at its Uxbridge office, followed by another in Reading next year. “These will be set up in dedicated meeting rooms with multiple screens and a printer. The purpose-designed facility will make the increasing number of virtual hearings easier to handle for both lawyers and clients,” DeBiase explained. 

“Virtual meetings have changed the way litigation work is handled with courts doing more of their work online. It has made the court system easier to deal with, which is good for us and our clients.”

However, she notes that virtual court appearances require different skills from lawyers as they can’t always read a person’s body language via a screen.

Expansionary times

As is DeBiase’s style, the firm started cautiously when it opened its office in Reading about three years ago. Having dealt with a baptism of fire from Covid-19 the small team quickly grew to around a dozen and is moving to new offices in the centre of the town from the beginning of February.

A measure of the Reading team’s progress was evident at the 2022 Thames Valley Deals Awards, where IBB Law picked up the Law Firm of the Year and Partner Adam Dowdney was voted Lawyer of the Year.

“Adam and his team have done an amazing job in very challenging circumstances. We are very proud of them,” said DeBiase.

Around half of Owen White’s team of five partners and around 30 staff will be based in Reading. The commercial services law firm has been operating in the region since the 1920s and numbers many large organisations among its clients, including a Heathrow Airport panel appointment.

Owen White has a strong reputation in the franchising industry in areas like property, employment law and dispute resolution. Franchised fast-food outlets and coffee shops, in particular, although having had a hard time during the pandemic, are likely to weather a recession better than the large chain restaurants, noted DeBiase.

To ensure the merger is a success, she is applying a similarly watchful approach that worked so well for the Reading office. “My focus is on getting the merger right by integrating slowly and thoroughly rather than rushing things through,” she emphasised.

IBB Law’s property sector expertise includes working on large-scale site acquisitions and site set-ups, planning and construction issues as well as processing the sale of around 2,000 new homes per year for Bellway Homes and other property developers. As well as IBB Law bringing additional strength and depth to Owen White’s property and franchise teams, it will also support private client work by helping business owners with family law trusts and settlements, wealth management and residential property issues.

The Owen White merger brings the number of partners in the firm to 36, with over 100 lawyers and an annual turnover of £24 million. The new entity has ambitions to grow turnover to £30 million within the next three years.

“We feel an optimal size is £30-£40 million turnover with 30 to 40 partners,” said DeBiase. “We are currently looking for another like-minded Thames Valley-based firm with similar clients to us. Expansion can only bring greater economies of scale to further drive our performance and resilience.”

Diversity focus

While all businesses aim to be more diverse, IBB Law is making demonstrable progress in this important area, especially by combining youth with maturity.

“Diversity can be a bit of a hackneyed word but we are really committed to it, especially as it brings diversity of thought and better problem solving. To survive in this constantly changing environment you need younger tech-savvy people combined with grey hair and experience,” said DeBiase. “We are striving to make the law as a profession more accessible and I am very proud that we have several senior partners that qualified by the Legal Executive route and we are already supporting a number of apprentices and trainees through the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) route to qualification.”

Progress on diversity was on display at the 2022 Thames Valley Property Awards, where the firm won the Young Property Person of the Year award for the second year running, with Machelle Jan following Mithun Rabheru’s success in 2021.

“Winning these awards demonstrates the superb work our younger colleagues do and how this is helping to accelerate their careers. I’m very pleased to be part of such a diverse firm and the fact that many of our retired partners choose to stay with us and continue to work for us provides such great training support for our young lawyers.”

The firm’s combination of caution with a ‘bring it on’ attitude looks to be perfectly pitched for the uncertain times we are living in.

For more information visit: www.ibblaw.co.uk