Keystone Law has added eight partners from firms including Kirkland & Ellis and Memery Crystal in its latest hiring round, as the firm hones in on recruitment to drive growth. 

Elaine Nolan has joined from Kirkland, where she was a partner and led on restructurings for Cineworld, WeWork and Homebase, among others. 

The firm has also added Carl Rohsler and Nick Alfillé from Memery Crystal, where they were head of commercial, IP and technology and head of corporate, respectively. Family law partner David Thompson has joined from Seddons, while Jo Bewley has signed up having been deputy managing partner and head of property services at BPE Solicitors. 

The incoming group is completed by Felicity Sergeant (residential property, Streathers Solicitors), Emma Loveday-Hill (employment, Prettys) and corporate lawyer Daniel Rose, who was general counsel at Dorfman Family Office.

Keystone Law is one of the leading platform firms alongside Setfords, Taylor Rose and gunnercooke, and has been notably successful in attracting lawyers from top 200 and US firms, with just half of its lawyers coming from this class of firms, according to research by Codex Edge. 

Firm founder and CEO James Knight told Legal Business last year the firm was focusing on recruitment to fuel its financial growth, including ‘pod members’, where senior lawyers can bring junior colleagues into specialised teams.

The firm recruited 60 partners last year across six rounds – up from 42 the year before – including former Allen & Overy structured and asset finance head Mario Jacovides and DLA Piper’s former London head of marine, Linos Choo. 

The firm also hired partners from Milbank, McDermott Will & Emery and Kirkland last year, among others, with Knight pointing to the increasingly sophisticated work the firm was attracting as its brand grows alongside its decentralised model as a draw. The firm has grown headcount by 8% in the past 12 months to around 557 lawyers, more than 360 of whom are partners, according to publicly available data tracked by Pirical. 

Keystone, which was founded in 2002 and listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in 2017, pioneered the dispersed model, which sees self-employed lawyers retain up to 75% of their fees with the remainder paying for support and infrastructure services.

Knight said in a statement that the latest round of new joiners “showcases the talent and quality of lawyers the firm continues to attract. I’m thrilled to welcome eight partners to Keystone, whose expertise will enhance our overall client experience”.

The firm grew revenue 15.1% to £87.9m in the year to 31 January 2024, up from 8.1% growth the year before. Adjusted profit before tax also rose to £11.3m from 2023’s £9.2m, representing an adjusted PBT margin of 12.8%.

Earlier this week, gunnercooke enlisted a five-partner team from FisherBroyles to open an office in Chicago, its second US office. It opened in New York in 2022.