VFS Legal
Company History
The Directors of VFS Legal have a wealth of experience in the legal sector, financial services, product development, operations and business management.
During a successful career in asset-backed finance Norman Kenvyn was introduced to the legal sector and the challenges that a typical law firm faces in terms of cash flow predictability. It was immediately apparent that the traditional funding solutions used by the legal sector were inappropriate, tired and not ideally suited for the modern law firm. Clearly a different approach was required to meet the cash flow anomalies of the law firm.
Robert Norman’s long and varied experience in Programme Management, Product Development and Operations made him the perfect foil for Norman’s financial background and this (allied with having known each other for more years than either would care to admit!) encouraged the pair to address what they saw as an obvious deficiency in funding for the legal sector.
They established VFS Legal Funding in 2011 as a direct lender to the legal sector, raising finance to fund the facilities and launch the first product – Costs Advance Facility. In 2014 the VFS Management Team was strengthened by the addition of Kathryn Thomson, a lawyer with a wealth of expertise in the financial and legal sectors.
Drawing on the varied experiences of their respective backgrounds, as well as the developing challenges of the legal sector, new and innovative products were introduced. These all provide law firms with additional cost effective funding solutions aligned to the actual time scales of individual cases. This fresh and unique approach not only reduces the law firm’s total interest costs but also gives certainty as the capital is not repaid until cases are settled. A further benefit now becoming clear is that VFS funding solutions also enable law firms to significantly improve their individual case profitability by positioning law firms financially in terms of strengthened cash flow when negotiating costs.
Many of our clients are involved in high value claims and as a result have benefitted hugely from VFS Legal helping fund their disbursements and issue fees. VFS Legal are approachable and highly skilled at board level. They are a key commercial partner for all of our Departments and we could not recommend them more highly
Our client focused portfolio is supported by efficient quality management procedures. From small beginnings our success in delivering valued, flexible solutions to client law firms has attracted further funding investment, supporting rapid expansion and making VFS Legal the specialist finance provider in the market; financing bills in excess of £60m across 10,000 cases.
VFS are uniquely able to support law firms with relevant facilities that deliver significant value in today’s business and regulatory environment where the adage ‘cash is king’ is ever more relevant.