Fowlie: Tangible benefits of Investcorp backing
The largest family law firm in the country is making good on its promise of cross-border expansion by moving into Scotland and Australia.
Stowe Family Law announced this week that it has completed an investment in Unified Lawyers, a family law practice with 60 staff working in offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.
It follows a partnership unveiled late last year with Kee Solicitors, a family practice with offices in Glasgow and Aberdeen.
This cannot be framed as an investment, because law firms with non-lawyer owners cannot operate in Scotland at the moment.
Stowe executive chairman Ken Fowlie told Legal Futures that “we’ve had to use different mechanisms” to do the deal.
He was “disappointed that the intention of the government and Scottish parliament [to allow for alternative business structures] is being delayed by how it’s being implemented”; the Law Society of Scotland has been under fire for this.
Stowe was acquired in late 2024 by Bahrain-headquartered global alternative investment manager Investcorp from private equity firm Livingbridge, which bought the practice in 2017.
Last summer, Stowe bought Kent firm Hatton Family Law, its fifth acquisition in a little over three years.
According to its recently published accounts for the year to 31 March 2025, turnover jumped 30% to £49.3m.
Over the 12 months, Stowe added 10 new offices, taking it to 99 in total, and 24 full-time-equivalent lawyers, making 204 in all. They worked on over 12,400 files, compared to 10,000 in the previous financial year.
Mr Fowlie – who is speaking at our Law Firm Growth Summit on 18 March – declined to say whether it has taken a majority or minority stake in Unified Lawyers but said Stowe targeted Australia for its first foray beyond the UK because of the cultural and regulatory similarities.
He explained to Legal Futures that the Scotland partnership was one of three key developments in the UK practice, along with the appointment of Rachel Roberts – who joined as a trainee solicitor 23 years ago – as UK managing director and a “very substantial multi-million pound investment in technology”, with the whole firm transitioning over this year to customer relationship management system Salesforce.
Mr Fowlie described Investcorp as “very ambitious” for Stowe and that these were “tangible points of evidence” of its support for the ‘Stowe 3.0’ strategy that he outlined when speaking to us in late 2024 after the investment.
Investcorp has been “a terrific partner”, he went on. “They’re really engaged and have a lot of relevant skills to bring to the table in terms of the delivery of services in the 21st century.”
In November, private equity-backed Fletchers Group moved outside of injury work for the first time by buying Rayden Solicitors, a family law firm second in size only to Stowe.
Mr Fowlie called Fletchers “a terrific business” and said the deal “reflects that, from a business investment point of view, family law is a good market to participate in. It’s an enormous market where there are lot of opportunities for innovative providers”.
He predicted that firms such as Stowe and Fletchers would help “move the market forward”.
Stowe has also been making progress with an unbundled offering. It offers “self-serve legal services” in which clients pay an hourly rate for specific tasks, like strategy meetings, reviewing documents, offering advice, and helping them to prepare for mediation.
The scope of the offering “will increase once we’ve got a more agile tech platform”, Mr Fowlie said.
He indicated that further international expansion was unlikely in the immediate future. “I’d like to think we will be able to grow our UK and Australian businesses in parallel – that’s probably enough for the time being.”
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