gunnercooke opens five offices
Legal and professional services firm gunnercooke has developed five new global offices to meet demand after continued success of its entrepreneurial model.
The firm now has 16 offices across England, Scotland, Germany, Austria and the US, with three new offices in London, Frankfurt and Chicago, and two upsized offices in Manchester and Leeds.
With a consistent annual revenue increase of over 15%, gunnercooke is one of the fastest growing firms in the UK, growing by 21% to £82m in 2024. 77 appointments have been made to date in 2025, bringing the firm’s global headcount to 842 (607 advisors including 409 partners).
Having quickly established itself as one of the ‘big four’ fee shares, gunnercooke has set itself apart with an ambition to be the leading entrepreneurial firm, helping advisors set up and scale up their practices, whilst keeping culture and purpose at its core.
Its second London location will launch next month at 1 Great Cumberland Place in the city’s West End. The refurbished Art Deco building next to Marble Arch offers premium meeting and collaboration spaces and access to The Orchard, a private members’ bar and restaurant with panoramic views of Hyde Park. The office joins gunnercooke’s long-established base at 1 Cornhill. The firm is also due to relocate its Manchester headquarters to a new 16,000 sq ft space at Pall Mall, Bruntwood SciTech’s transformational redevelopment in the heart of King Street. The city-centre base can accommodate 130 people and will be equipped with a dedicated client suite, flexible collaboration space and a production studio. The project is transforming a Grade II-listed landmark into a 120,000 sq ft, net zero carbon innovation hub, targeting an EPC A rating, meeting gunnercooke’s sustainability targets.
Manchester is the birthplace of gunnercooke and the home of its support team, gcTrust, which now comprises 90 employees, in addition to the 158 fee earners based in the region. The city is also the location of the firm’s first purpose-led bookshop, House of Books & Friends, which works closely with the gunnercooke foundation to tackle social isolation and loneliness in the local community.
Leeds recently saw the launch of an 18-desk office at the newly transformed West Village in the city’s business district, aimed at servicing the 45 partners now based in the Yorkshire region. In February, a Chicago office became the firm’s second US location following its New York launch in 2022. Established by five corporate partners, the team serve clients across Illinois and beyond.
Frankfurt became gunnercooke DE’s fifth German office, joining Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich. The Frankfurt launch builds on strong demand from German and international clients for cross-border expertise, with 47 lawyers now based in the territory. Founder Darryl Cooke commented: “The entrepreneurial model is now widely recognised for providing a better way to service clients, people and communities. Our growth has been exponential, particularly over the past five years. One of the benefits of our model is that our people can work from wherever in the world they choose. However, having these dedicated spaces in some of the most important cities for global business means we can offer more places to collaborate. People thrive off connection and with an increased demand following a recruitment drive, we’ve prioritised securing more space to take forward our global ambitions.”