Lawrence Stephens

Founded in 1997 by Senior Directors Steven Bernstein, Lawrence Kelly and Stephen Messias, Lawrence Stephens is a London based, full-service law firm providing proactive, expert advice to ambitious businesses and individuals for all their legal needs.

Managing Director: Steven Bernstein

Number of Directors: 47

Number of other fee-earners: 111

Their business clients are often privately or family owned, founder-led or private equity backed, including challenger banks and similar institutions and the individuals who own and manage these. A unifying theme is that they are entrepreneurial, growing businesses who require practical and commercial advice from advisers who understand them.

They also advise larger corporates on particular specialist legal matters who find their open approach a compelling alternative to larger, less personal firms.

In addition to their significant business law capability, they also have a large private wealth offering. They provide a personalised and discreet service for those with significant wealth as well as those whose needs are not so complex. Around a third of their work is advising private individuals, primarily in respect of private wealth and succession, family law and residential real estate matters.

• Family law: The Family team typically acts for city professionals, business owners and a range of clients from high net worth, high profile individuals, to non-domiciles, or British National’s living abroad. They handle complex cases involving substantial assets held offshore, in Trusts and similar structures. They have experience in depth, in dealing with complex child arrangements cases, including those cases which require findings of fact in domestic abuse cases, and work regularly with independent social workers, psychologists and family therapists.
• Private Wealth law: They advise on all aspects of family wealth management, including estate planning and succession to provide a smooth transition, putting their clients in the strongest financial position and giving them peace of mind. They advise on issues ranging from probate and succession planning to retirement and asset protection.Their contentious wills and probate team can also help in the management of any dispute which may arise.

• Residential Real Estate: The team advises on all types of residential real estate, advising buyers in new developments, more usual properties and prime properties with a value up to £30m in London and further afield. The team is highly experienced and efficient and over the course of 2024, the team has closed in excess of 800 residential transactions. We are proud that many household names entrust us with their transactions and we continue to build our reputation within the industry.

The firm’s unique culture has attracted talented lawyers from a broad range of backgrounds and the firm now boasts more than 45 Directors and over 100 lawyers, providing significant ‘bench strength’ for even the most challenging assignments. Their success is recognised by the major directories and legal sector press as a "Firm to Watch" outside of the Top 100 UK firms.

A truly multinational office, Lawrence Stephens’ legal practitioners can boast fluency in Cantonese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish and Swedish among other languages. We regularly assist clients based across Europe, the Middle East and South-East Asia.

50 Farringdon Road

London

EC1M 3HE

T: +44 (0)20 7936 8888

E: [email protected]

W: www.lawrencestephens.com