A law firm that markets itself by doing exceptional work
Clio details the collaboration with Adco Legal that resulted in clear efficiency gains, helped the firm’s growth and noticeably enhanced its service delivery to clients
Adam Cohen wore many hats before he became a solicitor. He trained as a chef, worked in business PLCs, and completed an Open University degree. He found his way into law through his LPC and training contract, and what stayed consistent across all of it was a preference for doing things his own way.
By the time he set up Adco Legal in London in 2023, he knew exactly what he wanted: a practice that answered to no one, ran at his pace and operated on his terms. Cohen started the firm with just himself and one other person, working across employment, commercial disputes, and debt recovery. He wanted to build a firm that earned its reputation through client care rather than marketing, and to grow without the overhead of a traditional firm.
Cohen explains: “When you set up a firm, you’re sort of doing your fee-earning work, but you’re also managing and running your business,” adding that “it’s very difficult in a small practice to do everything.” A firm grows legs quickly, and the compliance, onboarding, and timekeeping that accumulate behind every file take time to stay on top of.
Cohen had used practice management systems (PMS’) at previous firms and found them to be too narrow and inflexible, built for recording work rather than running a practice. He wanted something that could do both.
Something that worked like he did
When Cohen was evaluating practice management software for Adco Legal, he approached it the way he approaches most decisions: methodically, with a clear sense of what he was looking for.
One system he had used previously was functional but one-dimensional. He found himself bending his workflow to suit it. So Cohen kept looking. When he got a trial of Clio, the person he spoke to gave him real answers rather than a sales pitch, and extended the trial when he needed more time to evaluate everything else he was setting up simultaneously.
Cohen is clear that the quality of that early support was a significant factor in his decision when he signed up in 2023: “I can make Clio work for me, as opposed to me working for Clio. So that frees me up to do fee-earning work alongside running and managing a practice.”
Taking on work he never could before
When Cohen discovered Clio Work, he signed up for a free trial immediately. “I only needed to use it once,” he says.
A single session was enough to know he was keeping it. He describes having eureka moments with it regularly, finding something new every time he uses it. He is, by his own account, someone who buys things he doesnʼt need and sends them back: Clio Work is not one of those things. It opened up the ability to take on more, and to take on harder things — Cohen could now take on work he would previously have referred out, handling complex drafting himself and getting research back in minutes that used to take half a day.
A small firm doing the work of a much larger one
Cohen measures the change simply: “Maybe I could do one thing before I had Clio Work. Maybe one or two things a day, you know, heavy-duty stuff. Now I can do 10, 20 things a day.”
He recently had a contested matter where he needed to prepare a skeleton argument for court, the kind of work that would typically have gone to counsel. Cohen researched the applicable case law and statute using Clio Work, reviewed the output, and submitted the argument himself.
“I actually won the case,” he says. He explains: “I didn’t have to instruct counsel on this. And it was spot on. The case law, the statute, everything that came back within the skeleton argument was spot on.”
The opposing party cited the same authorities in their own submissions, which told Cohen everything he needed to know before the judgment came in. Adco Legal does no marketing, and every client arrives through a referral or comes back for more work. Cohen is clear about what drives that. “We don’t do any marketing at all,” he says.
“Our unique selling point is client care, friendliness, openness, and delivering a high level of client care and customer service,” he adds. Since Cohen started working this way, clients have commented more than ever on the detail of the drafting and the speed of the turnaround. The firm has grown from two people to 12 since 2023, and the demand definitely hasnʼt slowed. “I would have needed to hire more people. Now it’s not necessary.” Growth, for Adco Legal, doesnʼt require adding headcount to keep pace.
More capacity and fewer sleepless nights
The change Cohen talks about most readily isnʼt the caseload or the revenue, but what the work feels like now. He puts it plainly, explaining that firms that previously billed four hours of work in a day can now bill 12 hours because the work that used to take a full day now takes a fraction of that time.
Cohen built this firm to work the way he wanted it to. The difference now shows up after hours as much as during them. “I’ve not got things playing on my mind, thinking, ʻI need to have done this, I’ve got to spend five hours on this or that tomorrow.ʼ I can sleep better.”
Adam set out to build a firm that competes on quality and works the way he wants it to. Three years in, Adco Legal does both.
