Australian NewLaw boutique Law Squared has made its international debut with a new office in London. 

The office will work with Australian businesses in the UK and UK businesses with a presence in Australia as they expand to have dual jurisdictional advice, the firm said. 

Commercial lawyer Alexandra Geelan has relocated from Law Squared’s Brisbane office to lead the new base, which will cover market entry, corporate, employment and commercial matters, as well as legal operations and technology consulting. 

Geelan is currently the sole full-time member of staff in the office but said that the firm is actively recruiting and looks to have added two to five more people by the end of the year. 

“We’re excited to be bringing our unique culture, values and ethos to the UK legal market to continue to disrupt the traditional model of legal services,” said Geelan. “Our new London office will allow us to provide dual-jurisdictional advice to new and existing clients through our ‘Human Centred Law’ approach that puts relationships at the core of what we do.”

According to Law Squared’s website Geelan works predominantly as an outsourced in-house counsel through the firm’s ‘Law Squared as a Service’ approach, which offers clients on-demand access to all four of the firm’s legal teams for a fixed monthly cost. The firm described the approach as its take on a managed legal services offering and says it enables its lawyers to ‘act as a true extension’ of a client’s team. 

Clients of the firm cover a range of industries and include Bosch, Mercedes Benz Financial Services and Australian venture capital firm Blackbird. 

“When I started Law Squared, I wanted to disrupt the traditional law firm model - I wanted to endorse a shift of focus from profit to outcome, ultimately allowing for greater productivity, higher employee satisfaction and greater outcomes for clients, said founder and director Demetrio Zema. “Our growth over the last six years has proven this is possible and as our firm remains unique in its business model and its service delivery, an expansion to London has been the natural next step of our journey.”

Melbourne-based Zema worked as a solicitor at mid-sized national firms Logie-Smith Lanyon Lawyers and Ligeti Partners before founding Law Squared in 2016. The firm has three offices in Australia in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and employs 28 legal and business professionals, as listed on its website. 

Law Squared is not the only Australian NewLaw player to look to the UK recently. Earlier this month LegalVision, a tech-driven firm co-founded by former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lawyer Lachlan McKnight that aims to offer SMEs more affordable and accessible legal services, announced it was launching a base in Manchester. 

Earlier this year Aussie legaltech firm Xakia Technologies – which has developed a matter management platform for in-house teams – hired UK-based legaltech entrepreneur Dan Wales as its first-ever vice president to support the company's expansion across the EMEA region. 

And last summer Sprintlaw, a tech-powered firm based in Sydney, set up shop in London in a bid to better serve the UK startup and small business legal market.