The Silent Lunch Series #5

*PLEASE NOTE, that registering for a ticket does not guarantee a seat. We will review your application before confirming*

What is it?

Meet the architects: The Silent Lunch Series is an intimate, two-hour, “silent conference” in Sandton where 100 senior legal industry professionals will gather each month, and rotate through four focused 20–25 minute sessions each time. Each session runs simultaneously in its own zone, and guests listen via wireless headsets while enjoying complimentary coffee, tea, water, and snacks. Every 25 minutes, you move to the next zone, until you have heard all 4 speakers. Then pick up some free snacks and head back to the office.

When is it? Lunch number 5

The second silent lunch conference is between 12pm - 2pm on Thursday 28th Jan 2027, and is being held in the atrium of the WeWork, 155 West St, Sandton.

Lunch 5 – New Law Firm Models and Ownership

Theme: Platforms, PE-backing and virtual firms

Target market: Managing Partners, Strategy leaders, Entrepreneurs, PE/Investors looking at legal

Date: Month 5

Value Proposition

The traditional partnership model is under siege. Platform firms, PE-backed consolidators, and virtual practices are rewriting how law firms are structured, owned, and how partners get paid. This lunch is for managing partners and strategists who need to understand the economics of non-traditional models—from how platform firms pay partners without leveraging juniors, to how external capital changes equity and exit paths, to talent arbitrage across borders.

Four Topics

1. Platform and virtual firms: How they pay partners and seniors versus traditional lockstep or modified merit—economics, profit-sharing and risk allocation.
2. Private equity and external capital: How outside investment rewires partner pay, equity stakes, governance and exit paths—lessons from UK, US and Australia.
3. Profitability without pyramids: What remuneration looks like when you don't have armies of leveraged juniors doing the grunt work (AI and outsourcing fill the gap).
4. Cross-border talent and arbitrage: Paying global teams fairly while exploiting cost differentials across Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe—ethics and economics.

Where is it?

WeWork, 155 West St, Sandton. Go to the front entrance, ask for the Silent Lunch, and they will show you where we are.

Cost?

Zero for attendees

Who will attend?

Depending on the monthly theme, the audience could be Legal Industry professionals at every level. From students, candidate attorneys, associates, advisors, and counsel to legal technologists, founders of AI ventures, marketers, senior partners, GCs, CFOs, and CEOs.

Why attend?

1. High value, zero fluff
2. Curated lunchtime sessions on pay, careers and AI that directly affect bonuses, promotions, hiring and retention.
3. Four punchy briefings in two hours, with direct access to experts who see what’s working across firms and in-house teams.
4. Deep focus, no noise
5. Silent headsets supplied, short 20–25 minute talks, and intimate 25-person zones keep the content sharp, practical and easy to engage with.
6. Low-pressure, lunch-time format
7. Running 12–2pm in Sandton, so you don’t lose a billable afternoon or a travel day.
8. Coffee, tea, water, snacks and natural networking through zone rotations make it feel more like a small-room briefing than a formal conference.
9. Real, usable takeaways and strategies shared.
10. Every session answers “what should we change in the next 6–12 months?” on remuneration, training and careers, while 100 delegates rotate through all four zones benchmarking and sharing ideas.

For Sponsorship Opportunities, contact Sue Smith on [email protected]