Alex Kenny from Fletchers Solicitors, explains why Ed Fletcher should win the Leader of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
Having experienced a life-changing injury in a motorcycle accident, Ed provides not only leadership but is a daily inspiration to all. He ensures we focus on rebuilding clients’ lives and create the best possible outcome each time.
Fletchers’ ambition is to become a top 100 law firm by 2018. With great leadership we achieved a dramatic increase in revenue from 2013 to 2015. This increase secured Fletchers a place in The Lawyer’s Top 200, for the first time.
We’ve grown from 112 staff in 2012 to 300 in December 2015. Key to making this growth sustainable was getting the right business structure in place. Ed ensured we were one of the first firms to innovate following the Jackson reforms. In 2015, we achieved a major milestone by gaining approval as an Alternative Business Structure (ABS). This has enabled even greater innovation within the firm.
The Fletchers’ culture is designed to recognise and reward high performing staff. Ed has invested around £30,000 into the development of our high performers. Ed’s recruitment, reward and recognition strategies are all intended to create a happy and motivated workforce. The firm fosters an open-arms culture, where all staff are offered equal access to benefits and training, regardless of their position. Our staff retention rate is 88-90%.
Last year, we were one of only eight law firms that achieved the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for. We also achieved 79% in The Guardian’s Great Place to Work survey, which is a fantastic score.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
