Yes. Ciphr is built for mid-sized UK law firms and legal practices that need SMCR record-keeping, configurable workflows and reporting that holds up to partner and regulator scrutiny.
HR software for law firms, built to hold up under scrutiny
One connected suite. Built to make work, work. This is HR amplified
Most HR software for law firms promises to simplify tasks and quietly adds work instead. Another spreadsheet for training records. Another export to reconcile before payroll. Another query from a partner that bounces between HR, payroll and IT before anyone gets a straight answer.
Ciphr connects HR, payroll, recruitment, learning and benefits in one suite, so the record you're looking at is the same one payroll, compliance and reporting are working from. One source of truth, not six.
One system, not six logins
Fee-earner onboarding, absence, training records, billable-hours-linked benefits: all held in the same system, reading the same data. Update an employee's hours and payroll sees it. Sign off a leaver and their access, benefits and records update with them. No spreadsheet caught in the middle, and no risk of two teams working from two different versions of the truth.
That's the gap between HR software for solicitors that connects, and HR software that just sits next to your other systems.
“Introducing self-service has had a significant impact on HR. The manager or employee inputs [information] into Ciphr HR, and automatic notifications ensure that it’s verified by the appropriate person.”
Built in the UK, for UK legal practice
Ciphr is a UK company, built around UK employment law, SRA requirements and UK payroll cycles from the outset, not a global platform adapted for this market. Your data sits under UK GDPR and is supported by UK-based teams who know what a change to an SRA rule or an HMRC deadline means for your firm.
Gillespie Macandrew, Brabners LLP and Penningtons Manches Cooper already run their people data through Ciphr.
Compliance records you can stand behind
When a regulator or a managing partner asks for an audit trail of background checks, training completions, or an employee relations case, you shouldn't be piecing it together from three spreadsheets. Ciphr keeps compliance data in a single place, so the answer is ready before the question is finished.
Right-to-work, DBS and reference checks run through integrated checks from Experian and TrustID, so background screening on new fee-earners and support staff is auditable from the start, not bolted on after the offer's gone out.
AI with the full picture: some is here now, some on the way
Ciphr's AI works because it sits on top of one connected data set, not because it's a chatbot bolted onto old systems. Some AI capability is live today and answers questions from real, current HR data. Other capability, including more autonomous features, sits on the roadmap. We'll say plainly which is which rather than describe the roadmap as if it's already shipped.
Live now:
- AI assistant
- AI form summarisation
- AI-powered coaching (through MyTeamBuilder)
Self-service that protects billable hours
Fee-earners update their own details, book leave and find policies without raising a query with HR. That's fewer interruptions for your team, and fewer minutes of a solicitor's day spent on admin instead of client work.
Trainee solicitors and graduate hires often accept an offer six months or more before they start. That's a long gap for a new joiner to sit and wait.
Ciphr's onboarding module closes that gap. When an offer's accepted, the new joiner gets access to your own onboarding portal - months ahead of their start date. So they can access role-specific information right away, and get a real sense of your firm long before their first morning.
The same access lets them make a start on the admin that would otherwise pile up in week one: right-to-work checks, contracts, bank details, and any pre-start training. It all happens in the same HR software they'll use from day one, so there's no separate joining pack to read and then a different login to learn once they arrive.
For firms that take on a graduate or trainee cohort every year, that turns "day one" into a smaller event. Everyone starts from the same point: checked, signed and already familiar with the system they'll use every day after.
Built for UK mid-market legal practice
Ciphr is designed for firms with real HR and payroll complexity – multiple offices, fee-earner structures, SMCR obligations – without the budget or the appetite for a multi-year enterprise rollout. It's HR software for law firms you can implement without a transformation project.
This is HR amplified
One connected suite. Built to make work, work. For HR directors who need a system that holds up under scrutiny, and CFOs who need numbers they don't have to double-check. Ciphr gives your firm more control over complexity, not more of it.
Go live in as little as 7 weeks
We recommend a phased rollout. Launch central HR first. Add payroll, recruitment or learning once your team has the basics in hand, so business as usual carries on while adoption builds.
Implementation is part of the product, not an afterthought
You won't be handed a login and left to configure Ciphr yourself. Our HR implementation is a structured, supported process: your data migrated properly, your practice groups and workflows configured to match how your firm actually runs, and a named team with you through go-live and beyond.