The firm that built for the future and arrived there early – Clio
How Adam Benedict put clients and technology at the core of its operations to build an award-winning firm
When Adam Creasey and Benedict Cressey founded Adam Benedict in 2023, they designed it as a deliberate challenge to how law has traditionally been practised. Adam is a solicitor, while Benedict brings a non-legal professional perspective to the firm’s leadership, and that combination was entirely intentional. They wanted diverse perspectives at the leadership level and built the firm as an Alternative Business Structure to make that possible.
The founding principle was straightforward: clients come first, in every decision from pricing to process. That meant moving away from the billable-hour model as soon as possible towards fixed fees, value-based pricing, subscriptions, and fee caps.
“I have seen things from both sides, but ultimately the legal profession needs to catch up with the modern world in terms of service delivery and how we prioritise working with clients rather than against them,” Adam says. “That’s not just about fee structures, it’s about our entire operation.
“Technology was central to that investment before the firm had taken on a single client. Adam had read Clio’s co-founder Jack Newton’s book, The Client-Centred Law Firm, and arrived at a clear conclusion.
“Having read Jack’s work, I knew that Clio was going to be aligned with us, both in terms of values and service offering.”
Clio became the firm’s core platform from day one, as part of the infrastructure the firm was built on.
From faster turnaround to more client trust
For a firm built around delivering more for clients, pace matters as much as quality. In a recent M&A transaction, the firm on the other side had 35 specialist lawyers and took three weeks to turn around a share purchase agreement. Adam Benedict sent back a redlined document in 48 hours using Clio Work.
“All the parties want this transactions,” Adam says. “What they don’t want is for creaky old law firms to hold up the transaction.”
In another example, a client came to them after a different firm had held the case for nine months without any meaningful progress.
Adam made a promise to this client: come to a Friday afternoon meeting, and by the end of it, he would have a full legal strategy, a complete evidence gap analysis, a litigation budget, and a detailed assessment of the other side’s likely litigation strategy. Working with his colleague, Grace, and again using Clio Work, the team delivered the quartet within 24 hours, and the client was blown away.
The intermediary on the call was so impressed that he later referred a second matter to Adam Benedict, meant for another firm: a multi-million-pound piece of litigation.
“We’re able to help more and more people with the same headcount, the same capacity.”
Three years in, and already making history
The results of Adam Benedict’s innovative, client-centred, tech-supported approach speak for themselves: their firm has grown from a two-person startup to a team of ten. Its turnover value has grown by over 200%, as has its client base.
“We [almost] tripled revenue from year one to year two through client loyalty and some fantastic cases that we have managed to bring on board, punching way above our weight.”
And by the end of 2026/2027, the firm expects to significantly increase revenue again without adding a single lawyer to the team. Alongside rapid growth, the firm’s reputation has soared. Adam Benedict has been named one of The Times Best Law Firms 2025, who also awarded them Top 20 status for Construction law firms in the UK, and won the 2025 Reisman Award for Best New Law Firm. The firm also won ACQ5’s Construction Firm of the Year 2025, Private M&A Firm of the Year 2025, and Adam was named Construction Lawyer of the Year 2025. Most notably, the firm has already made legal history three times in just two years, contributing to the creation of new UK law in the construction sector.
They were working on a construction case at the time that produced the first finding of relevant liability under section 130 of the Building Safety Act, the first Building Liability Order and the first information order under the Act—all in a single matter.
He explains the wider significance: “That’s historically important because the Building Safety Act is the post-Grenfell legislation, Grenfell being the disastrous fire that killed a lot of people in a tower block in London in 2017.” The decision is significant because it shows how the Building Safety Act can be used to prevent construction companies from avoiding liability for unsafe building work through corporate restructuring or the winding up of subsidiaries.
“It’s probably the most important development in the construction industry in the last 100 years or so, and to be the first to have gotten that is a real achievement,” Adam says.
The model and where it goes next
From the start, Adam and Benedict knew that building a client-centred firm meant getting the operations right. If tasks like admin, communication, and billing can slow their firm down, everything else suffers.
“We’re a small team, there are always going to be bumps in the road and imperfections, but we’re constantly looking at trying to make it better,” Adam says.
“That’s with the help of having a piece of software from people who really understand the problem that we’re trying to solve. It’s been incredibly important.”
The team can take on more complex work, move faster, and give clients the kind of visibility and transparency that even larger firms struggle to deliver consistently. Having Clio at the centre of the practice makes that possible at scale.
Adam Benedict can automate workflows, streamline billing, and give clients direct access to their case updates and documents through Clio’s client portal.
“I love the fact that clients get an app on their phone,” Adam says, “a one-stop shop for their legal needs.”
It also supports the firm’s approach to pricing, which is built around what clients actually want: certainty. Moving away from the unpredictability of the traditional hourly rate means clients know what they’re paying before the work begins. The firm’s systems make that model practical.
Benedict puts the forward view simply. “Things change all the time, but the key for us is to maintain regular contact with our clients, nurture good relationships, and take on board what they say. Then it’s down to us, as their lawyers, to look further ahead, so it benefits them in the future.”
In only three years, Adam Benedict has grown fast, made history, and built something that looks nothing like the profession it set out to challenge.
