Kepstorn is fourteen!

It was 27th October, 2007 that Kepstorn started in business. I have spent longer at Kepstorn than at either of my earlier firms and it is amazing how fresh and new it still feels. Yes, there are daily (weekly, monthly, etc.) challenges, but that is part of being in a professional services firm. To have a constant stream of new and interesting issues (most are not “problems”) is what helps to keep me interested and enthusiastic, after almost 35 years in the law.

Let’s face it, however, the last two years have been the most testing of all those 35 years. Who would have thought that anything would have been worse than the two years that preceded 2010, when we started to emerge from the banking crisis and the credit crunch?

The recovery from the Covid pandemic is the complete opposite of the recovery from the credit crunch. The economy is booming (to the extent of over-heating) whereas people’s health and well-being are in a constant state of flux. Whilst in 2010, we were all trying to return to “normal” (and trying to assess where the economic damage caused would result in an unfortunate “new normal”), now everyone accepts that there is no likelihood (or willingness) of a return to some (even many) of the pre-pandemic norms.

One analogy is that the elastic of society as a whole has been stretched to the extent that its ability to return to its original state has been lost. Stretching elastic is, however, linear; there are very many “left field” solutions that have evolved as a result of the last two years; we are looking at three dimensional elastic stretching!

“Necessity is the mother of invention” has never been a more appropriate phrase. We are now looking at what can only be described as an evolutionary event – an occurrence that is so far-reaching that it changes the direction of travel. As historians now look back on the Industrial Revolution, will the historians of the twenty-third century look back on the pandemic?

We are certainly far too close to these changes (and have a great many more years of the pandemic’s direct influence yet to experience) to be able to sensibly assess the effect of the last two years, but it is already clear to everyone that there has been a seismic shift in so many of the moving parts of modern society.

All of which brings me back to my opening comment: that what I do each day is still (and, possibly, now more than ever) a source of great interest and enthusiasm. To help clients achieve their goals, whatever those may be, in a climate that is perceived as less-than-supportive adds an additional level of satisfaction to the work that is involved. Clients are still acquiring businesses, seizing new opportunities, taking risks, planning for their future. All these activities require clear and focussed advice from professional advisers and everyone at Kepstorn continues to provide that input.

I can’t promise that there will be another fourteen years for Kepstorn (there certainly won’t be another 35 years in the law for me!) but, for the moment, Monday mornings are still an adventure, not a trial, and as long as that continues to be the case, I will continue to get up!

I hope that everyone shares this level of enthusiasm for the “new”. It is very possible that there is a whole new world to discover on our doorstep and we are being handed the opportunity to help shape it. That must be worth getting up for.