Business Hour
In this month’s business hour, Matthew Parkinson visits Forbes Solicitors to find out what the future holds for Lancashire’s biggest law firm since the arrival of trailblazing CEO Oliver Burton
Luckily, I don’t get stressed,” claims Oliver Burton, sitting across the table from me sipping a cup of hot, black coffee. He takes a sip, explaining how he’s been able to compartmentalise his work to deal with the rough and the smooth that come with such a rapid rise. It’s an ability that sees him keeping an incredibly cool head a little over a month into his tenure as CEO of Lancashire’s biggest law firm at just 35. So how did he get here?
It certainly didn’t start from day one. “You know when you’re at school and you’ve got to write about what you want to be when you grow up? I wrote, ‘RSPCA van driver’,” Burton explains, laughing.
So, if he wasn’t a child prodigy, perhaps his student days would be the making of him? Wrong again. “I think as a student I’ve always just done enough,” he confesses. “I was never trying to be an A-grade student; I was just able to knuckle down when I needed to.”
When graduation freed him from the shackles of full-time education, Burton saw off 3,000 other candidates to earn a place on the Bank of Scotland’s two-year graduate scheme, but it wasn’t the career launchpad he’d expected: “Rather than conforming with the scheme, I preferred to learn the corporate banking job first hand, instead of in the classroom,” he admits.
After six months Burton left the scheme, walked straight into a business development position at the bank and never looked back.
The word ‘meteoric’ is a well-worn cliché, but there are few better ways of describing what happened next.
Alternating between Manchester and Lancashire as new opportunities arose, Burton took each new challenge in his stride, earning titles such as ‘Banker of the Year’ and ‘Young Dealmaker of the Year’ before being offered the opportunity of a lifetime.
“I moved to Manchester again to work in corporate finance, and during one of the restructures, I was asked whether I’d consider applying to become one of the Manchester directors,” says Burton. “I was 26 at the time.”
When things began to slow down in the wake of the financial crisis, he saw the opportunity to expand his pre-existing skills in a new environment. Having decided to stay within professional services, Burton enlisted a legal and accounting recruiter, drew a radius around his house and began contacting companies that might be interested in what he had to offer. In 2013, he became Chief Executive of Cheshire-based law firm FDR Law.
Burton was only encouraged by the challenge laid down in front of him. “What was great about being a non-lawyer, is being able to look at change independently, to work out where you are, where you want to be and work out what you’ve got to do to get there.”
By 2017, Burton’s adaptability hadn’t gone unnoticed and it wasn’t long before an opportunity with Forbes Solicitors appeared on the horizon. “Forbes is the largest firm in Lancashire. We’ve got 312 employees across 10 offices,” he explains. “So, as a Lancashire lad, who’d previously worked in Lancashire, with family and friends living in Lancashire, to have the opportunity to stop cheating on Lancashire with Cheshire was an easy decision!”
Burton was installed as CEO in January this year, and although admitting that he’s still lifting the bonnet to see how everything works, he couldn’t have wished for better foundations to build upon. “The culture is great,” he says, clearly excited by Forbes’ potential. “We want to be everything we are now, however grow the number of clients we support, the number of services we can offer – to have grown sustainably, making sure it’s still a great place for people to work.”
Burton deserves every credit for his achievements thus far, but he insists it’s been a team effort: “Through everything I’ve done I’ve always been keen on having people that keep me true to myself, helping to ensure that I don’t compromise my own values and integrity, challenging me every step of the way.”
Thankfully, Burton’s drive didn’t put a dent in his personal relationships, with his family playing a crucial role in his success. “I could have been chatting to a £100 million turnover business during the day, but the minute you walk through the front door and the kids want to build a train track or play Barbies, then you’re in your suit, lying on the lounge floor helping to save Barbie from a runaway train. That’s a release when you’ve had such a busy day!”
It’d be easy to think of Burton as a Jekyll and Hyde character, who sheds his corporate skin each time he leaves the office, but this simply isn’t true.
“Consistently me,” is the way he chooses to describe the sort of CEO he is whether he’s around colleagues and clients, or friends and family. Perhaps it’s this attribute that’s helped him maintain an optimistic outlook in the face of the many challenges he’s faced during his rapid ascent.
When it comes to sustainable growth and ushering in an exciting new chapter in the company’s 200-year history, they’ve chosen well in Oliver Burton.
