Innovative law firm Temple Bright continues to develop its practice within the domain of the region’s large traditional firms.
The Bristol and London firm has been advising North Somerset’s prestigious Churchill Academy on two significant construction projects, for which the Ofsted ‘outstanding’ school received almost £5m in government funding.
The academy, founded in 1957, recently commissioned the Alan Turing Business, Computing and Social Science Block as part of a wider project to decommission some of the 60-year-old buildings still in use at the school. The block is due to be completed at the end of this school year. 
In February it also received planning permission and funding for a second, still more ambitious project – a £3.9m, 14,000 sq ft science and technology building, including 12 laboratories and two food technology classrooms. This will replace a mock Tudor building dating from 1957 and is due to be completed in December next year.
The school said: “Churchill Academy is continuing its quest to replace the tired and dilapidated 1950s Tudor building, which provides teaching and learning space for over 2,000 students over the course of their two-week timetable.”
Temple Bright construction partner Julia Davenport-Cooper, pictured, added: “It has been a privilege to work with the Churchill Academy on these two exciting projects, which are central to its vision for the future.
“This is a high-flying institution which deserves state-of-the-art facilities that match the quality of the education it offers to students. This goal has been at the forefront of the whole team’s mind throughout the process.”
Temple Bright was established in Bristol in 2010 with a pioneering partner-only business model enabled by technology. Within two years the firm grew from the initial three to 15 partners and was named Regional Law Firm of the Year by the Bristol Law Society, before launching a second office in London on its third birthday in March 2013.
The initial focus of the London office, located in the vibrant Tech City district north of the City, was the capital’s buzzing technology scene, including start-ups and investors. From there the sector emphasis expanded to include other industries flourishing in London, such as real estate, leisure and media.
The firm now has 56 partners spread evenly across its two offices, with both teams offering clients a broad range of commercial legal advice across diverse sectors. There are no junior lawyers and Temple Bright has deliberately chosen not to develop personal practice areas such as wills, matrimonial and residential property, preferring to maintain a commercial focus like that of the City firms which are its main inspiration.
Co-founder Tim Summers said: “Our appointment to advise the Churchill Academy for these significant construction projects is a vindication of our selective and careful ‘City’ strategy, as to recruitment, marketing and firm management.
“It demonstrates the breadth and depth of Temple Bright’s practice and sector expertise at the seven-year point, as well as the versatility of our partner-only business model.
“Through steady growth and a culture of professionalism we are now in a position to take on a very broad range of work which has generally been the preserve of traditional City and large regional firms, with whom we are competing successfully in the South West, in London and beyond.”
