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Chambers HNW 2025: Lawrence Stephens Residential Real Estate Team Recognized, Goli-Michelle Banan Ranked Band 3

Posted on: July 24th, 2025 by Alanah Lenten

We are delighted to announce that Goli-Michelle Banan, Head of Residential Real Estate at Lawrence Stephens, has been promoted from Band 4 to Band 3 in the latest Chambers High Net Worth 2025 guide. Her individual rise is matched by an exciting development for the wider Residential Real Estate team, which has secured its first-ever ranking, entering directly at Band 4 in the Real Estate: High Value Residential category.

This recognition places us firmly in competition with some of the capital’s larger and most established firms, including Howard Kennedy and Edwin Coe, underscoring the strength, calibre and growing market presence of our Residential Real Estate team.

With more than a decade’s experience in the prime and core London residential market, Goli-Michelle is a trusted adviser to HNW and UHNW individuals, developers, investors, and trust administrators across the UK and internationally. Known for her commercial insight and unrelenting attention to detail, she is also recognised in the Spear’s 500 as one of the UK’s top recommended property lawyers.

This year’s Chambers HNW guide includes glowing endorsements from clients and peers, who describe her as:

  • “Exceptionally efficient and professional. She has remarkable attention to detail and a thorough approach.”
  • “Incredibly helpful and very detailed… a great solicitor that I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”
  • “Positive, thorough and professional.”

Our Residential Real Estate practice advises on a wide range of complex and high-value transactions, including property sales and acquisitions, leasehold enfranchisement, development site purchases, refinancing, and Islamic finance. Clients range from private investors and family offices to corporates and developers, all of whom value our commercial, solution-driven approach and high-quality service.

Our team’s first-time ranking also reflects the exceptional feedback received this year:

  • “Lawrence Stephens is committed to its clients and provides excellent legal advice, offering solutions and updating all parties involved in an extremely timely manner.
  • “The team is easy to work with, personable, client-centric, pragmatic and collaborative.”

We’re proud that Chambers HNW 2025 has acknowledged the expertise that defines our real estate offering. Congratulations to Goli-Michelle and the entire Residential Real Estate team on this well-earned recognition, a major step forward in our continued growth within the HNW space.

Strategic Growth: Lawrence Stephens Appoints Zahra Shah to Strengthen Real Estate Finance Practice

Posted on: July 4th, 2025 by Ella Darnell
Lawrence Stephens is pleased to announce the appointment of Zahra Shah as Senior Associate to its Real Estate Finance team.
 
Zahra joins us from a high street firm, where she was a Partner in the Real Estate department. She brings extensive experience across both residential and commercial property matters, with particular expertise in real estate finance. Zahra qualified as a Solicitor in 2019, having previously worked as a real estate paralegal at the Department for Education. Her appointment further strengthens our team’s capabilities and reflects our continued commitment to growth.
 
Head of Real Estate Finance, Ann Ebberson said “I’m pleased to welcome Zahra Shah to Lawrence Stephens and our Real Estate Finance team. Zahra brings strong and diverse sector experience, that will further strengthen our team’s capabilities. Her appointment marks another exciting step in the firm’s continued growth and reflects our commitment to expanding our expertise and commercial reach.”

Why Agile Leadership Is Key to Law Firm Culture and Expansion

Posted on: July 3rd, 2025 by Natasha Cox

Chief Operating Officer Johnny Nichols comments in Legal Practice Management magazine on how Lawrence Stephens’ strong people-first culture, and focus on developing an effective leadership model, has enabled the firm’s continued growth and development.

Johnny’s comments were published in People Management Magazine’s July edition, and can be found here.

How would you describe your firm’s current leadership model? 

“Our leadership model is both flat and lean. Flat in that we have a number of departments focused on particular legal disciplines and markets, but all with a say in the management and direction of the firm. Lean in that there are few lawyers who have time targets devoted to this.

“There are essentially three layers of leadership: the Senior Directors, who own the firm, Directors, who lead on the legal services we offer, and the Executive Committee who take day-to-day decisions on behalf of the firm.

“A flat and lean organisational structure, with fewer management layers, offers several benefits including faster decision-making, improved communication, increased employee autonomy, and a more agile response to changes with little need for consensus building. This makes us more agile and able to take advantage of opportunities where other firms may struggle. A recent example of this was the recruitment of a Real Estate team from Memery Crystal during its recent crisis, from under the noses of several larger firms. We were able to meet with and agree terms quickly and decisively, which resonated well with those teams affected.

“However, we recognise that this flat structure may become unwieldy as the firm grows and more streamlining may be required.”  

Have you considered or introduced new roles to lead certain aspects of your firm?

“Having recognised the need for growth and the limitations of Directors undertaking these roles (with neither the time nor the expertise) the firm took the decision to firstly recruit a Chief Operating Officer (me) to take the lead on the establishment of a fully functioning and appropriately empowered Business Services team. This included a new Head of Learning and Development, Head of Risk and Compliance, and more recently a Chief Finance Officer. As law firms become more sophisticated and the level of compliance and regulation has increased, law firms have had to recruit specialists into these roles in order to meet these. Having these people on board also relieves fee earners from tasks they were fundamentally ill-equipped for anyway, allowing them to focus on their fee earning roles.”

What steps is your firm taking to develop business and leadership skills among fee earners?

“Fee earners are not taught this at law school and to expect them to be able to just pick this up ‘on the job’ is unrealistic. Developing business and leadership skills through formal programmes is then really important and we are providing more training for line managers on their role, enabling them to better support and motivate staff.

“Formal programmes now exist to offer firmwide DEI training, and regular ‘lunch and learn’ events foster a collaborative, knowledge sharing environment. These often involve using existing expertise at the firm to upskill others, which in itself is a developmental activity. On top of these firmwide approaches, targeted groups now have new training programmes to support through crucial periods of their career, for example at Senior Associate level. More bespoke training is also available, including targeted coaching for staff where required.”

Succession planning is a common challenge among SME firms – how is yours preparing the next generation of leaders? 

“Recognising the limitations of the lockstep model, our firm has already moved away from this and is now constituted as a limited company. A limited company provides a more structured framework for managing the business, with clear roles for directors and shareholders, which is beneficial in a larger firm with complex operations.

“In terms of diversity, we work hard to ensure that everyone at our firm is treated fairly and equally. This includes our recruitment processes, career development, recognition and reward. As part of this initiative, the firm has agreed a target of 25% females in Directorship by 2026, and we look set to achieve this target by next year.”

How important is it for firms to shift focus away from individual performance exclusively? What practical steps are you taking to encourage effective collaboration?

“We have hosted a number of training sessions over the last year for cohorts at different stages of their careers which included discussions on the themes raised in the DCM Insights research.  We recognise the need for effective collaboration across all our activities and our own efforts to encourage this include a move away from purely  ‘X times salary’ targets for individuals. These are now considered at department level and budgets set to support work being fed down to more junior levels and to allow time for more managerial/strategy work for those more senior.

“When it comes to feeding back, individual reviews are still seen as important, but should always be considered in the wider picture, and 360 degree feedback is encouraged.”

Looking ahead to 2030, what defining leadership qualities or frameworks will separate thriving firms from struggling ones?

“Many firms talk about their unique culture being the key to their success. There is considerable evidence to support the view that a strong and distinct culture can lead to increased revenue, employee satisfaction, and improved client satisfaction. Against this positive backdrop, there is also growing evidence of increasing consolidation of law firms and potentially increasing external investment in law firms in the lead up to 2023. Both these themes introduce a level of change and potential disruption and it’s my view that only firms with a strong and engaged leadership will be able to maintain and develop a positive culture in the light of such change in what is regarded as vital to a thriving firm.

“So, looking ahead, I think that the most important quality for successful law firm leaders will be the ability to not only maintain and manage an existing culture, but be able to adapt to external influence brought about through combining teams and firms, and the involvement of any external investors along the way.”.

To find out more about our story, values and management approach, please click here

 

Lawrence Stephens makes nine promotions

Posted on: July 1st, 2025 by Natasha Cox

Leading full-service law firm Lawrence Stephens is proud to announce the promotion of nine colleagues from teams across the firm, effective from 1 July 2025. These promotions reflect the contribution made by them in the delivery of services to our clients and to the wider firm.  These follow a year of continuing growth for Lawrence Stephens with strong demand felt in all areas.  

William Bowyer becomes a Senior Associate in the Sports and Entertainment team.  William advises on a mix of non-contentious and contentious matters in sport and was recognised earlier this year in the first cohort of the International Sports Convention‘s 30 Under Thirty Awards.

Rosalin Gautam becomes a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution team. Rosalind acts on matters relating to breach of contract, partnership and joint venture disputes, shareholders disputes, professional negligence and individual and corporate insolvency.   

Priya Patel becomes a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution team. Her experience covers a broad range of civil and commercial disputes for individuals and businesses.

Angelique Richardson becomes a Senior Associate in the Sports and Entertainment team. Angelique was recognised as a ‘Leading Associate’ in the latest edition of Legal 500, as well as also being recognised in the first cohort of the International Sports Convention‘s 30 Under Thirty Awards.

Harshita Samani becomes a Senior Associate in the Corporate and Commercial team. Harshita is both multilingual and dual-qualified in India as well as well as in England and Wales. She works on complex and high-value transactions involving asset and share sales and purchases for a diverse range of clients.

Lucy Cadley becomes an Associate in the Corporate and Commercial team. Lucy trained at the firm and now advises on a range of corporate and commercial matters, which include share and asset sales, company restructurings, private equity, mergers & acquisitions and commercial contracts.

Emma Clifford becomes an Associate in the Real Estate team. Emma also trained at the firm and was responsible for setting up LawLinks, a professional network event series for junior lawyers in the firm.

Isobel Moran becomes an Associate in the Corporate and Commercial team. Isobel trained at the firm before joining the Corporate and Commercial team. She advises on all aspects of corporate and commercial law, including share and asset sales, acquisitions, company restructuring and shareholder agreements.

Henry Richards becomes an Associate in the Private Wealth and Succession Planning team. Henry specialises in private wealth disputes, representing beneficiaries of estates and trusts, those excluded from inheritance unfairly, trustees, executors, attorneys and deputies.

Steven Bernstein, Managing Director at Lawrence Stephens, commented: “The promotion of these nine exceptional colleagues recognises their dedication, expertise, and contribution to our clients and the firm. They also reflect our commitment to developing, supporting, and encouraging the remarkable talent that exists within the firm.  We are excited to see how they progress in their new roles.”

Lawrence Stephens featured in PM Forum Magazine

Posted on: May 22nd, 2025 by Natasha Cox

Managing Director Steven Bernstein, Chief Operating Office Johnny Nichols and Head of Business Development and Marketing Daryl Atkinson feature in the latest edition of PM Forum Magazine talking about what makes the culture at Lawrence Stephens so special, and how this is powering our growth.

Founded in 1996, PM Forum is the world’s largest community of professional services marketers, with more than 3,000 members in over 40 countries. The Forum is dedicated to raising the standards of marketing across law, accountancy, property and other professional sectors.

House Shouts

There will be very few law firms where the CEO knows the names of all 190 staff, and even fewer where those people are, like school, assigned a ‘house’. Alongside phenomenal growth, this is why Lawrence Stephens has been repeatedly tagged as the firm to watch.

Matt Baldwin speaks to Managing Director Steven Bernstein, Chief Operating Officer Johnny Nichols, and Head of Business Development and Marketing Daryl Atkinson.

Lawrence Stephens like to do things differently. It is a relative newcomer to the London legal market, founded in 1997, and, like many other firms, named after its founding directors.

But unlike its peers, the firm is strictly first names only. The ‘Lawrence’ is Lawrence Kelly and the ‘Stephens’ are Steven Bernstein and Stephen Messias. All are still involved in the firm.

It is a hint towards its difference.

The firm is a limited company, with directors instead of partners, focused on entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses, SMEs and financial institutions, particularly challenger banks.

“We know what we are good at, and we concentrate on that,” explains Managing Director Steven Bernstein. The firm does, however, provide the full service of legal advice for those clients and will, as it grows “stay in its lanes, acting for bigger clients”.

It is an approach that is clearly working, seeing revenue increase by 30% a year over the last five years, and its headcount growing from 50 to 190 people. It was named by The Lawyer as a ‘firm to watch’ in its December 2024 podcast.

It is, however, its culture that truly marks the firm out as different.

Bernstein spends 30 minutes every day walking the floors and talking to his colleagues. Remarkably, he knows them all by name. “I see it as part of my job description to walk the office, chat with people and ask them how they are doing, if everything’s OK. “I have to work at it, particularly with 40 new members of staff this quarter alone, but it is the easiest 30 minutes of my day.”

The firm’s Farringdon office is open plan with no allocated desks. It means staff quickly get to know each other.

“It creates a real buzz,” says Johnny Nichols, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, “with conversations and discussions naturally occurring all the time. It means those who have recently joined us get to meet others and build relationships quickly. “Importantly,” he adds, “it fosters the kind of environment where everyone is nice, enjoying each other’s company, happy to collaborate and celebrate each other’s wins.”

And then there are the firm’s ‘houses’, named after locations of previous offices – Baker (Baker Street), Portland (Great Portland Street), Wigmore (Wigmore Street) and Morley (Morley House on Holborn Viaduct).

“The idea came from our trainees,” explains Bernstein, “with first-year trainees appointed ‘head of house’. Everyone in the firm is a member of one of the four houses. There are competitions throughout the year for ‘house points’ that at the end of each year are turned into charitable donations.”

Every summer, there is the firm’s sports day and BBQ where house members, joined by partners and families, compete for house glory. Other events include the ‘Bake-Off’ challenge and the annual house quiz.

“It empowers younger people, breaking down the hierarchy in the firm,” says Bernstein. “It means that as we grow, staff get to know each other much easier. Importantly, it’s fun, and we want everyone to enjoy what they do and where they work.”

Lawrence Stephens 3.0

Entrepreneurial businesses are never static. Just as its clients grow and change, so too is Lawrence Stephens. “We are currently Lawrence Stephens 2.0,” says Bernstein, “and quickly heading towards Lawrence Stephens 3.0”.

Part of that journey has been the investment in a strong business services team, supporting and guiding the legal teams.

Nichols joined the firm as its Chief Operating Officer in September 2022 having held senior roles in Allen & Overy and Bird & Bird. Daryl Atkinson joined in June 2024 as its Head of Business Development and Marketing. He leads a team of five.

“There are two aspects to the role,” explains Atkinson. “There is the execution piece, making things happen efficiently and effectively and without reinventing the wheel, and the advisory piece, trying to encourage the right kind of behaviours and activity that deliver results. “I strongly believe that to make waves, a firm of this size needs to be really clear about its future. We can’t be in every market – it is just not possible. It’s about bringing focus to the firm. We know what we are good at and what we should concentrate on. We are also clear on what we not going to do.”

Atkinson and his team have made an immediate impact.

“We are a people business,” explains Bernstein, “and that means the relationships we have with our clients are important. They like what we do and keep coming back to the firm. Daryl and his team are helping us to better leverage those relationships and to understand where we should focus our energy.

“We are now better known in the areas we work than ever before. The reputation change has been enormous, and the foundations are now in place for the firm to grow into Lawrence Stephens 3.0.”

Lawrence Stephens 3.0 will look and feel very similar to the firm today. Its culture will be jealously guarded and nurtured.

“We don’t want to lose our humanity,” says Nichols. “Our HR team is helping us to articulate what our culture means to people individually so we can find ways to hold on to that and sustain it as we grow.”

That growth might see the addition of new teams – it recently took a banking and real estate finance team from the collapsed Memery Crystal – and the addition of new expertise, but only if it fits the firm’s tight client profile.

“We can imagine ourselves with an office a little further north… a kind of hub for clients in Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds,” adds Bernstein. “But there is no intention of having an office in every town or a large international footprint.”

There is an energy inside Lawrence Stephens, a sense of urgency and mission that is shared by its 190 people. It is a little less like a law firm and more like its entrepreneurial clients. And that should leave the more traditional mid-tier firms looking nervously over their shoulders.

Lawrence Stephens Expands Residential Real Estate practice with Senior Hire

Posted on: May 12th, 2025 by Natasha Cox

Lawrence Stephens is delighted to announce the appointment of Alexa Kordowicz as a Director in the firm’s growing Residential Real Estate team.

Alexa joins from Child & Child, where she developed a leading reputation for advising on high-value residential property transactions. Alexa has built a wide-ranging practice acting for individuals, companies and both UK and international private banks. She brings to the firm a wealth of experience in managing complex and high-net-worth property matters, with a particular focus on delivering a seamless client experience through strong relationships and a commercially minded approach.

Alexa looks forward to working closely with teams such as Private Wealth to coordinate multi-faceted transactions involving extensive property portfolios.

Speaking on her appointment, Alexa commented: “I’m thrilled to be joining the highly regarded team at Lawrence Stephens. The firm’s client-first ethos and collaborative culture are an excellent fit for my approach to legal practice. I look forward to continuing to support clients in the UK and internationally on their residential property matters, and to growing the practice together with the wider team.”

Goli-Michelle Banan, Head of Residential Real Estate, added: “Alexa is an exceptional addition to our team. Her experience in high-value residential transactions, coupled with her commitment to client service, aligns perfectly with our focus on delivering a tailored and positive experience. We’re excited to welcome her to Lawrence Stephens as we continue to expand the scope and strength of our Residential Real Estate offering.”

Details of our Residential Real Estate services can be found here

Celebrating gender equality on International Women’s Day

Posted on: March 7th, 2025 by Natasha Cox

Supporting women in the progression of their careers is important to us at Lawrence Stephens. We are proud to have established a Gender Equality Network (GEN) to drive equality initiatives forward. In its first year, GEN has developed a toolkit of supporting resources, held a panel event to explore allyship, arranged the provision of sanitary protection in the loos in our building and invited speakers to discuss topics from effective communication to hormone health. 

With International Women’s Day approaching, we decided to widen the conversation to mark GEN’s first anniversary. Over the last few weeks several members of the GEN committee and the wider firm were interviewed on the topic of equality in the workplace. Many interesting insights were shared, including the things we would say to our younger selves and what we would like to see change in the next decade. We put them together in a short film which was premiered at our International Women’s Day party yesterday. We look forward to sharing a shorter version of this video with you soon. We hope you enjoy watching it and that some of our insights resonate with you. 

This International Women’s Day we celebrate our brilliant female colleagues and our wonderful male allies with whom we continue our efforts to move towards greater equality at work and in society. 

 Who inspires you to use your voice to strive for greater equality?

 

Three Lawrence Stephens directors ranked in the 10th Edition of Spears 500

Posted on: January 23rd, 2025 by Hugh Dineen-Lees

The latest edition of the Spear’s 500 is out now and we’re delighted to report that Goli-Michelle Banan, Lawrence Kelly and Stephen Messias have been included.

This is the 10th edition of the Spear’s 500, which is the original and most in-depth guide to advisers to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices. The rankings are compiled by the Spear’s Research Unit and are based entirely on merit.

Congratulations to all those included on this recognition of their expertise and dedication to clients.

Lawrence Stephens expands its Real Estate Disputes team with appointment of Senior Associate Roberto Francis

Posted on: January 6th, 2025 by Natasha Cox

Leading dispute resolution firm, Lawrence Stephens, is pleased to announce the appointment of Roberto Francis as Senior Associate to its Real Estate Disputes team.

Roberto joins the firm with extensive experience acting for bridging and alternative lenders with a primary focus on secured and unsecured recoveries, which includes but is not limited to possession claims, receivership, insolvency and professional negligence.

Head of Real Estate Disputes, Abtin Yeganeh said “We’re delighted to welcome Roberto to our team. We’re certain that the breadth of his experience will enhance our service offering and enable us to continue delivering commercially focused, marketing-leading legal advice.”

A firm to watch: Lawrence Stephens features in The Lawyer podcast

Posted on: December 6th, 2024 by Natasha Cox

The Lawyer 200 celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and Editors Catrin Griffiths, Christian Smith and Richard Simmons have been sharing their views on their annual survey in their regular podcast which presents their take on the top stories, trends and views in the legal market.

In October they reviewed five firms from the Top 100 survey that they are watching in the coming years, for good and ill. In their latest episode they revealed the five firms outside of the Top 100 that they are also watching. These firms were selected for their “momentum, innovation, promise, growth…or not!” and we are delighted to report that Lawrence Stephens is featured in a very positive light. We were praised for our ‘twin engine’ focus for growth, working with challenger banks and similar institutions alongside owner managed businesses and the individuals who own and manage these.

The podcast is available via Spotify or Apple, please click on the relevant link to listen further.