Revolution by Evolution
Thackray Williams is reinventing the rule book by appointing three new Managing Partners –in keeping with its ethos of putting people and innovation at the heart of everything it does. Eileen Leahy meets the ambitious law firm’s dynamic senior management team to discover why they’re breaking with convention and how their complementary skill sets will benefit both clients and staff – and help the business deliver on its targets
‘Law firms don’t solve problems, people do’ is the strapline you’ll see on Thackray Williams’ website – and that philosophy is certainly evident from the moment you step foot inside its stylish Bromley HQ.
Studded into the wall of the main reception area is a striking colourful 3D sign which reads ‘People Powered’, while in the uber-cool main office space, meeting rooms are named after numerous famous local residents such as David Bowie, Emma Raducanu and Charles Darwin. And then of course there are the staff at Thackray Williams who are all smiles and waves as our photographer David and I head to the boardroom for our shoot. People are very much at the core of this successful firm, which was established in 2004 – whether they’re a client, visitor or team player.
I’m here to talk to Thackray Williams’ current Managing Partner Sean Sanders and board members Vikki Herbert, Anthony Macey and Emma Thompson – along with the firm’s Non-Exec board member and Chair Simon Slater – about the change in leadership when Sean steps down from his role in March 2025. Having been at the helm for nine years, Sean won’t be replaced by just one Managing Partner, but three when Vikki, Emma and Anthony take over. This, I discover during the course of our conversation, is extremely unusual; traditionally, there is only one person at the top of the pyramid. Thackray Williams however is clearly determined to pioneer a new way of doing business – for the good of all its people.
“We’re working on this transition over the next six months but we established the board in 2019,” Sean tells me. “Vikki, Emma and Anthony became more involved five years ago and during that time the firm has changed considerably.”
Earlier this year, Tunbridge Wells Business Magazine spoke to Nick Gabay, Head of Corporate & Commercial at Thackray Williams about how the firm is on an exciting trajectory to continue accelerating its impressive year-on-year growth, delivered by breaking down traditional silos between the different disciplines to provide more holistic legal services for its private and growing commercial client base.
This new and unique senior management framework is an extension of the company’s commitment to being recognised as one of the most pioneering and successful regional law firms.
When Sean began his tenure at Thackray Williams, which also has offices in Sevenoaks, London and West Wickham and a staff of 130, the business’s turnover was around £7 million. This year it’s likely to be around the £13 million mark.
But Sean is very keen to stress that he alone cannot be thanked for the firm’s success. It is by all accounts very much a team effort.
“I formed the Thackray Williams board in 2019 to help me run the firm. I asked my colleagues Vikki, Emma and Anthony to join me as they all have different areas of expertise, so over the past five years they have had experience of helping run things. Therefore, it made sense for them to take over.
“It’s not a very traditional move for a law firm to employ three Managing Partners – to the best of our knowledge, it’s unprecedented – but we like to do things differently here,” smiles Sean.
“All three of them have been here for around 20 years and so I knew they were the perfect people to take over. I have every confidence they’ll continue to do a great job.”
Vikki, Emma, Anthony and Simon are equally as full of praise for Sean when I ask them about their board responsibilities.
“Sean got us through Brexit and the pandemic,” comments Vikki, before Emma adds that Sean’s nine-year tenure has been nothing short of ‘phenomenal’.
The leading South-East law firm, which has 10 equity partners, boasts the prestigious LEXCEL Practice Management Standard, a quality mark that only 3% of solicitors in private practice have attained. It is also listed in both the Legal 500 and Chambers Guide for 2025 and has its sights set on becoming one of the UK’s top 200 law firms after it posted record-high revenue of £12.2m for 2023/2024.
“The inception of the board was because our ambitions for the firm changed; we needed to be more ambitious in our decision making,” Emma explains.
“The formation of the board has allowed the firm to be more agile in its decision making and pivot where required. This has enabled us to focus on implementing our strategy, which has in turn led to our financial success.”
Emma, who heads up Thackray Williams’ commercial and employment teams in London, Bromley and Sevenoaks, reveals that what she personally likes about being part of the senior management team is seeing results: “I like knowing we’re in control of changing the direction of the firm and having responsibility in terms of leading it. My personal passion is having ambition for our people. So I lead the recruitment strategy and the business areas of the firm. It’s about supporting our lawyers to have fulfilling careers with us whilst maintaining a work-life balance.
“People are key to the firm’s ambitious growth plans, which is why they are at the heart of the decisions we make. When recruiting, we’re looking beyond skills and expertise, essentially for ambitious people to join us on our journey. ”
Emma is enthusiastic that having this incredibly revolutionary democratic setup, where each board member has responsibility for certain areas of the firm, means the Managing Partners now have the opportunity to regularly reflect on where they are, where they want to be and by when – and what needs to be achieved to keep the strategic momentum required. “Just being able to sit back for the first time in a very long time and see what Sean has achieved during his tenure is phenomenal.”
When I ask Vikki, who has overall responsibility for Thackray Williams’ Real Estate departments, what she enjoys about being part of the senior leadership team, she reveals that having the opportunity to develop her own professional skills and experience is great but that, once again, people are key.
“Being part of the board has given us the ability to see what we are good at and to develop those skills. We’ve been involved for five years so we are not just stepping in from day one. I am keen to make sure our brand awareness is on point and that our people are giving our clients the best possible service they can.”
Next I ask Anthony about his role overseeing the private wealth sector and taking responsibility for the firm’s financial management. He tells me that because he, Emma and Vikki have all worked at the firm for the past two decades this has been an added bonus to the way the trio operate: “When the board was formed that really enabled us to see that we had the same ambitions for the business and to see where our strengths were. All this has helped us to make the difference the business needs.”
When it came to looking at the succession planning after Sean announced he would be stepping down, Anthony remarks that it seemed a natural evolution for the three of them to do it together, even though this meant breaking with the established legal industry norm.
“I think that really shows there is no ego between us. Instead, there is a collective ambition. We know where our strengths lie and we want to combine those. I think our aim for growth is now stronger than ever and when you look at what we want to achieve – not even taking our skill sets into account – it’s a job that no one person could do on their own. Where we want to go is something that not just one person could deliver anyway.
“We don’t want to be seen as a traditional law firm. A lot of what we have been doing is to be a modern law firm that embraces our people and to be the best business we can be. We have had some really positive changes in the last 12-18 months and that’s rewarding as you can see that the decisions being made are making a difference and taking hold with other people in the business and why they are part of our journey. Everyone is working towards the same goal.”
Between the three of them Vikki points out that they represent the whole business: “Emma is on the commercial side, Anthony is private wealth and I am real estate and we still carry out our fee-earning work in those areas. Coincidentally we also represent different locations: Emma is based in Bromley, Anthony is in London and I am in Sevenoaks.”
The trio are keen to point out that although they offer legal services, their roles are also very much about ensuring the firm runs as a successful business. Emma says they are able to do this because there are three of them, which is a unique position they find themselves in, unlike a lot of senior management hierarchies.
“We all know each other very well and have healthy differences in perspectives on things, which is very helpful. And we’re very good at holding each other accountable and I think you can’t have those ambitious plans for growth unless you’re prepared to do that. Yes, that may mean engaging in some challenging conversations, but when you’ve got a responsibility for a certain part of the business, it does allow you to make sure that everything is driving in the right direction.”
Emma reveals that when the announcement of the new appointments was made, feedback from Thackray Williams staff was positive: “We have distinct responsibilities for each part of the business – meaning that everyone in the business feels represented at the most senior level of the firm.”
Anthony comments that a lot of what the trio have been doing is to embrace Thackray Williams’ people and trying to be the best in the business: “We want to help people achieve their ambitions.”
He then explains that having Non-Exec Chair Simon in the background for the past 18 months has been ‘invaluable’.
“His experience of having worked in bigger practises that have also grown from being much smaller is invaluable. They have seen their ambitions fulfilled and that’s what we’re looking to do. We need to know what and where those markers are and that keeps us all very much focused.”
Reflecting on his role at the firm, Simon tells me there are ‘several strands’ to being a Non-Exec board member. “The first is to provide the board, the partners, and the firm, with a really clear sense of direction around its ambition. So I’ve been instrumental in helping my colleagues around this table formulate the strategy that sees us through to 2030. And it’s a pretty simply stated strategy. Law firms have a terrible tendency to overcomplicate things if you let them. So there’s beauty in its simplicity.
“I’m also here to provide guidance regarding various issues they may face in terms of leading the firm. And finally I am here to constructively challenge and hold to account, but also act as a mentor. So it’s a very supportive role, but with a laser focus on where we’re trying to get to – whilst embodying the general culture of the firm.”
And that, states Emma, is what Thackray Williams also pride themselves on: “It is our culture and our focus on people. And that’s a real challenge when you’re trying to achieve growth quickly.”
Simon’s ‘laser focus’ is also on growth and he reveals there is a medium-term plan and a longer-term one. “We aim to achieve revenues of £15 million by spring 2026/27 and £20 million by 2030.”
Anthony and the team have been exploring all of the areas where they can improve performance.
“We’ve been looking at how you make things more efficient, but you realise that just normal organic growth is not going to achieve that. So it’s also about focused and strategic growth. We’ve been looking at the practice areas where we’re already strong so we will continue to maintain, develop and strengthen those. We’ve predominantly always been a private client-centric business covering any particular area of tax trusts and wills, and we have a very large residential property base as well.
“Our strategic and targeted growth plans now have a bias towards the corporate and commercial offering given the significant growth we’ve seen in these areas of the business,” adds Anthony.
“It’s the strategic recruitment that Emma’s pushing that is very important for us right now. That’s where we are really identifying where that growth will come from well ahead of time,” Sean confirms.
Vikki says that as well as operating out of four office bases, the firm is also looking to attract more clients from across Kent – including Tunbridge Wells – although a new office in the town is not on the cards at the moment. What has proved to be enormously successful is the opening of the Sevenoaks office.
“If these guys had said to me six years ago, we’re going to open an office there I might have said ‘well that’s a very well-lawyered town already’. And yet they did and now six years on it’s generating 20% of the firm’s revenue,” Simon notes. “With courage and ambition, you can do these things.”
Before I leave, I ask Sean how it feels now to be relinquishing the reins?
“It’s fine. I’m not leaving, I’m actually going to go back into the discipline that I qualified in, which is property, real estate and residential conveyancing. One of our partners is retiring from our West Wickham office so I’m going to help run that. I still want to add value to the firm and for me it’s going to feel like a new job! And I’m always around if anyone needs some advice.
“I’ve got every confidence in Vikki, Emma and Anthony and I’m looking forward to witnessing their successes. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the rest of the board. I was there on the day each one of them started so to see them grow into leaders of the firm is just fantastic.”
Career CVs
VIKKI HERBERT
Vikki is an Equity Partner, Board Member and overall Head of Thackray Williams’ expanding Real Estate sector, which includes Commercial Property, Residential Conveyancing, New Build and Leasehold Enfranchisement.
Passionate about property, Vikki has been the driving force behind the Real Estate team for more than a decade, helping it secure rankings for Commercial Property in Legal 500 and Real Estate by Chambers.
Vikki’s areas of responsibility include:
Business development, including expanding the Leasehold team into one of the largest ‘specialist teams’ in the sector, outside of central London, and building and nurturing a professional network across Residential Conveyancing and New Build.
Risk and compliance, to ensure peace of mind for clients, staff and the business.
Fee-earning work within the Leasehold team providing support and advice to leaseholders, freeholders, intermediate landlords and agents to facilitate a cross section of residential lease related matters.
ANTHONY MACEY
An Equity Partner, Anthony heads Thackray Williams’ London, City office, as well as leading the firm’s Private Wealth sector, which incorporates the family law and private clients teams, both of which are ranked in the Legal 500.
He is STEP accredited (Society for Trust & Estate Practitioners), which is a worldwide, recognised professional body, that only admits the most experienced of practitioners in the field of Trusts and Estates. He has also been recognised in the Legal 500 as a named individual for the quality of his work and the advice he is able to give.
Anthony’s areas of responsibility include:
Financial management of the firm, to facilitate continued growth and success.
Business development of the Private Wealth sector, which recorded 38% year-on-year growth in Q2 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, with an increase in both the amount of work and the average value of individual matters.
Fee-earning work within the Private Client team, concentrating on families and individuals in respect of their Wills, Estate Planning and the Administration of Estates.
EMMA THOMPSON
Emma is an Equity Partner and Head of the firms’ Employment team. She also leads the firms’ Commercial offering, being directly supported by Nick Gabay, Head of Corporate.
Emma is listed in Chambers for Employment Law.
Emma’s areas of responsibility include:
Recruitment: attracting, nurturing and retaining the highest calibre of lawyers aligned with Thackray Williams’ values and culture to ensure exceptional customer service with the best possible outcomes to fuel further growth.
Business development: Emma has developed the education sector into a key specialism for Thackray Williams, both public and independent schools, and nurseries. She has expanded the Corporate and Commercial sector by overseeing a significant increase in the number of commercial clients. She has also bolstered Thackray Williams’ London referral network, leading to new instructions from senior executives and high-net worth clients.
Advising commercial and individual clients on employment issues, offering bespoke solutions and a strategic approach to avoiding costly Tribunal disputes.
