Jobs boost as Riverview opens Yorkshire office

FAST-GROWING legal services business Riverview Law, which is led by entrepreneur Karl Chapman, is to set up an office in Yorkshire next year as it looks to extend its reach by targeting North America and Asia.

The North West-based business plans to open an office in Saltaire, creating around 20 jobs in the region in 2014.

Riverview Law went live in February 2012 following the introduction of the Legal Services Act, which allowed non-lawyers to own law firms for the first time.

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Riverview Law’s customer base now encompasses mainly FTSE 100 companies, but includes small and medium-sized enterprises as well.

Mr Chapman is also the founder and former executive chairman of HR advisory outsourcing firm AdviserPlus Business Solutions, which launched in 2001, has a turnover of £13m and already has established offices in Saltaire.

Mr Chapman, Riverview Law’s chief executive, said: “We have the experience of what it’s like in that region, and it’s a brilliant catchment area because you are sitting between Skipton, Leeds, Bradford, it’s a fantastic catchment area.”

AdviserPlus’ customer base includes UK Asset Resolution, which manages the loans of failed lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley.

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Mr Chapman said that around three years ago customers of AdviserPlus started asking the business if it could provide legal work.

So, Riverview Law was launched. Global law firm DLA Piper and AdviserPlus are shareholders in the business.

“The business model we are deploying in legal is exactly the same as the one we are deploying in HR,” said Mr Chapman, a non-executive director of AdviserPlus.

“So if you think it has probably taken us two years to get us to where it took us six years to get to with AdviserPlus.

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“And that’s not because Riverview Law is necessarily a better business, but the market opportunity, timing is good, and because we had all the experience of AdviserPlus over 13 years, the business model we’ve just been able to deploy into the legal sector, so we’ve grown much faster.”

Next on the agenda is the development of international markets by the firm. Riverview Law already has an office in New York.

“International expansion, if you’re not careful, is high risk and time consuming. Always make sure you follow your customers,” said Mr Chapman.

While Riverview Law plans to follow its customers to North America and Asia, AdviserPlus is pursuing the European and North American markets.

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Commentators expect that Riverview Law, which offers legal services at a fixed fee, will have turned over £2m in its second year of trading, with this figure expected to rise to £4m this year.

Mr Chapman described the legal market as “one of the single biggest opportunities” he has seen.

The firm currently employs 140 people, but expects this figure to double in a year.

Mr Chapman has a track record of starting and growing businesses. He launched CRT Group plc, a recruitment outsourcing business in 1989.

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Under Mr Chapman’s leadership his team grew CRT to a market capitalisation of more than £600m, sales in excess of £400m with 2,500 employees.

In 1996, CRT sold 50.1 per cent of its equity for £109m to Knowledge Universe, a US-based company whose major shareholders included Michael Milken, the one-time junk bond king.

Mr Chapman, who described the legal market as “one of the single biggest opportunities” he has seen, said that there is a key ethos which has run throughout his businesses – ensuring the involvement of the right people.