London-based Birdi Group is backing its next stage of growth with six new hires and significant investment in the people, technology and infrastructure needed to build the business its founders believe it can become.
Founded by Kush and Leena Birdi, the independently owned law firm expects its team to reach around ten people by the end of 2026, with the new appointments joining over a two-month period.
The recruitment is being supported by investment across IT, office infrastructure, finance support, equipment and business development, as the founders choose to put additional capacity into the business ahead of the growth they expect to achieve.
For Kush, it is a decision familiar to many business owners: whether to wait until growth forces investment or back the business early enough to be ready for it.
“People sometimes ask me, ‘What if it doesn’t work?’ and my answer is always, ‘What if it does?’” said Kush Birdi, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Birdi Group.
“There comes a point as a business owner when you have to decide whether you genuinely believe in what you’re building. We do, so we’re investing accordingly.
“Six people joining us in a relatively short period is a big step for an independently owned business. It means more salaries, more equipment, more technology and more infrastructure before all of that investment has necessarily had the opportunity to generate a return. But if we’re going to become the business we think Birdi can be, we have to build for that business rather than the one we were yesterday.”
Based at The Gherkin in London, Birdi Group works with businesses across Corporate, Commercial, Commercial Property, Employment, Banking & Finance and Disputes.
Its recent work includes completing a £2.5 million growth capital facility in five weeks, working backwards from the client’s required completion date to manage the different workstreams and allow the business to progress its growth plans.
It is an approach Kush and Leena say reflects how they want Birdi to work as it gets bigger: understanding what a client is trying to achieve commercially rather than looking at an instruction purely as a piece of legal work.
Leena Birdi, Co-Founder of Birdi Group, said: “As business owners ourselves, we understand that decisions aren’t made in isolation. Recruiting somebody, opening another location, taking on funding, signing a lease or buying another business can all be part of a much bigger plan.
“We want to understand that plan. It means we can look ahead with our clients and help them think about what needs to be in place for where they want to go next.”
That philosophy is also behind Early Birdi, a new initiative being launched by the firm to encourage business owners to make time for the bigger conversations about buying, growing, protecting and eventually selling their businesses before those decisions become urgent.
The first Early Birdi Club will take place at Birdi Group’s Gherkin office on 24 September, bringing together a small group of business owners, founders, brokers, investors, referrers and advisers.
Kush said the idea came from repeatedly seeing businesses seek advice at the point when something had already become urgent, despite the decisions affecting the outcome often having been made months or years earlier.
“The best time to speak to your lawyer isn’t necessarily when you need a lawyer,” he said.
“You cannot wake up on a Tuesday and decide you want to sell your business on Friday. The same applies to raising investment, buying another company, dealing with shareholders or putting the right structure around growth.
“The earlier you start thinking about where you want the business to go, the more choices you generally have about how you get there. That’s really what Early Birdi is about.”
As Birdi enters its next stage, its founders are equally conscious that growth can create challenges of its own. Their focus over the next six to twelve months is therefore not simply on increasing headcount, but on ensuring the firm’s systems, standards and culture develop at the same pace.
Kush added: “We want to grow, but bigger shouldn’t mean harder to reach. There are plenty of examples of businesses that become more successful and somehow make it more difficult for their customers to deal with them.
“We don’t want that. Technology and systems should make us more efficient, but relationships still matter. The challenge is to build a bigger Birdi without losing what made people want to work with us in the first place.
“We’ve got ambitious plans and we’re putting our money behind them. Now it’s about delivering.”