Yet another “Kepstorn is …”! This time, we’ve reached the ripe old age of eighteen and whilst the time has just flown by, it is also interesting to plot the progress of the firm over this period. I can safely say that after the “credit crunch” and the Covid pandemic, I really did think that the breakneck pace of work had plateaued, with a slightly less hectic approach to business. The last twelve months, however, have proved that this is very far from being the position; we have never been more busy.
When I started (a few weeks before the run on Northern Rock!), in my study at home with a laptop and a list of people that I had worked with over the previous twenty years, I had (as you would expect) a reasonably cautious outlook on what could be achieved. I certainly didn’t foresee the enormous expansion in the business that occurred over the first three years and looking beyond a few years didn’t seem to make any sense.
Once the foundations had been built, I was always conscious of the fact that I started the business because I wanted to return to “doing” the law, rather than managing a team of others to do it. As a result, whilst there were always “pinch points” when the amount of work was pretty hectic, I always wanted to make sure that I was able to devote the time to the work that the clients needed. As someone who genuinely loves what I do, doing the work is almost an end in itself! That means that I get a great deal of satisfaction in just delivering the result and the process of getting there must be enjoyable.
Don’t get me wrong, stress can part and parcel of many mandates, but when you are “on top” of the project, you never feel out of control. That means, however, that you have to devote the time to a client and a project needed to be comfortable with the whole situation, not just focused on a particular area of concern, because there is always something (often, more than one) which can come out of “left field”.
Eighteen years isn’t quite yet one half of my working life. I have been out of University for just over thirty-eight years and so we are fast approaching that milestone. The twenty years before I set up Kepstorn was, as I said, a period during which I made connections and formed relationships with a huge number of commercially minded people who have continued to instruct me in work, refer clients to me for projects and to provide insight and perspective on issues that have arisen. I still get work from and work with people that I have “grown up” with during my entire career. That is, frankly, a priceless asset.
As I say, things don’t seem to be slowing down, now that the business is out of its “youth”! I am still having fun in delivering solutions and I am also pleased to be able to “put something back” with my work with the University, with the Law Society of Scotland and with various UK-wide bodies that are involved in the education of and standard setting for fellow professionals.
In short, if you had told me, eighteen years ago, that I would have achieved so much and still be getting up on a Monday morning, “raring to go”, I would have thanked you for your exuberant enthusiasm and support, and promptly discounted your comments as lunacy! I can’t promise (or even hope) to be still going strong in another eighteen years, but there is life in the old dog, yet.
As I have said on a number of occasions: you work to live, not live to work; but if you enjoy both life and work, you are truly blessed.
