They say life begins at 40 – but for one of the partners in a new firm of commercial property lawyers, it started just a few days before.
Feldon Dunsmore has just been established by former colleagues Paul Harrison and Steve Petty to assist businesses and individuals in a range of commercial property deals.
The pair worked together around a decade ago but decided last July to form their own practice. In November, they took space at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Business Innovation Centre in Binley as part of the Ignite programme, which is aimed at fledgling firms.
The plan was to launch on January 1 this year – ahead of Steve’s 40th birthday four days later – and they managed to hit their target.
Paul said: “We both felt the time was right to launch our own company and although five or six months was pretty good going, I think we were tough on ourselves in terms of timescales to launch.
“The aim was always the first day of 2014 and Steve was really keen to have his own business before he turned 40 so we managed to meet that target too!
“Over the years, we’ve developed a wealth of experience and contacts in the commercial property world and believed we could make a real success of a new company.
“We’ve already seen many of our existing contacts come to us with instructions but we have already picked up new work too and we are less than a month into our existence.
“That is not just a positive sign for us but for the whole commercial property market. I am not saying we are at pre-recession levels yet, but things are certainly picking up which bodes well.
“If the commercial property sector is improving, then it’s a good sign for the economy.”
As well as traditional legal services, Feldon Dunsmore is also planning to launch a website which will offer off-the-peg, fixed fee services such as a standard lease.
“The plan is that our base here will be a hub for the whole UK,” added Paul. “We pride ourselves on a personal service for clients but we believe that can be supplemented by what we offer via the web.”
Dirk Schafer, of the University of Warwick Science Park, welcomed Feldon Dunsmore.
He said: “Innovation does not always come in the form of the invention of a new product it can be taking an existing service and improving it and offering clients something new.
“We are delighted to welcome Feldon Dunsmore to the Science Park in our Ignite space but, by the way they are growing already, I expect they will be expanding within the Business Innovation Centre very quickly.
“The great thing about the centre is that it is flexible enough to accommodate that growth very easily.”