Hill Dickinson is a rare law firm to gain cut through on the terraces, but its unusual approach to marketing is paying off, writes Maria Ward-Brennan
It’s rare to hear a law firm’s name come up in chat among football fans, but Hill Dickinson’s was dropped while I was standing in the home end at West Ham. Since the firm made its bold entry into the sports sector last year, its brand recognition has soared across the UK, showing that marketing matters in a growing, competitive market.
At the time, the firm’s strategic move raised a few eyebrows, as traditional legal firms have long played it safe when it comes to marketing. But one year on, the plan to build brand awareness seems to be paying off: recent figures show turnover rose 18 per cent over the last year.
Last year, Hill Dickinson signed a stadium naming-rights deal worth around £10m per year to name Everton’s new waterfront stadium at the start of this Premier League season. It is not abnormal to have a stadium named after a major business – Twickenham, the home of English rugby, is known as the Allianz Stadium – but a law firm’s name is less common.
Now, the Liverpool-headquartered English firm’s name is prominently displayed at the prestigious new stadium for a top-league team. But it also got an unexpected PR boost from one of The Toffees’ most high-profile supporters, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who regularly attends matches.
“We’ve had a boost in our profile in the sector because we’ve had the stadium sponsorship. That’s a very visible representation of investment in the sector and ambition in the sector,” Craig Scott, chief executive, told City AM. The boosted profile led the firm to formally launch a dedicated sports practice, led by new partner and head of sport Richard Bush from Bird & Bird. He added that the plan is for Bush to bring together all the firm’s sports-related work and build it out, at a time when sports law is surging across major law firms.
London office fuels Hill Dickinson’s record year
Financially, the firm is performing very strongly. The authors of a Taha Capital Markets report on Hill Dickinson found that, “On the data, the best-run law firm in the UK mid-market, no better-run independent under £500m has crossed our desk.”
Its firm-wide turnover stands at £172.1m for the 2025 financial year, up over 30 per cent from the previous two years. Headcount has also grown, as Scott said 17 partners joined in the previous financial year, with 12 more in the first four months of the current year and another five expected in the next two months.
The 216-year-old firm was traditionally known as a maritime and shipping law firm, but it has pivoted its reputation toward corporate and business services, such as banking, real estate, and employment, which now generate the most revenue. Scott said, “We hold the crown at the moment for most listed clients.”
“[I’m not sitting] here and claiming that we’re acting for the largest market cap listed clients in London, clearly, that is a competitive market… but when you add them all up, we have the most listed clients on the markets in London at the moment, and that’s something we’re proud of because some of those will hopefully grow into quite big companies,” he said.
However, the firm has not left the maritime world. It has yacht lawyers based in the West End and Knightsbridge, alongside its Monaco office.
But the firm’s London office has become a major growth engine. As part of its growth strategy, the City office now has around 250 people after the firm added 20 last year. Scott said the City office turnover was just over £60m, or a little over 30 per cent of the firm’s total, making it the firm’s largest office by revenue.
Now, the firm’s UK growth plan focuses on continuing to build its regional offices, which Scott described as fast-growing but “by no means fully built.” However, unlike the larger branded firm’s goal of growing bigger, Scott said Hill Dickinson would stay nimble and take opportunities as they arise.