Renvilles Costs Lawyers is proud to announce that Luke Gainsford has officially qualified as a Costs Lawyer, marking a significant milestone in his professional journey and further strengthening the firm’s nationally recognised team.
Luke joined Renvilles with a strong background in legal costs and has consistently demonstrated exceptional skill, dedication, and professionalism. His qualification as a Costs Lawyer reflects not only his personal commitment to excellence but also Renvilles’ ongoing investment in the highest standards of legal expertise and training.
As a Costs Lawyer, Luke is now authorised to conduct costs litigation, provide legal advice, and represent clients in court on costs matters. His qualification enhances the firm’s capacity to deliver expert support across a wide range of complex cost disputes, including personal injury, clinical negligence, commercial litigation, and legal aid.
Renvilles has long placed the Costs Lawyer qualification at the forefront of its recruitment and development strategy. Luke’s achievement is a testament to this ethos and to the firm’s commitment to nurturing talent and maintaining industry-leading standards.
We congratulate Luke on this well-earned accomplishment and look forward to the continued value he brings to our clients and team. Our Founder and Managing Director Mike Renville said:
We are delighted to celebrate Luke’s achievement in qualifying as a Costs Lawyer. This milestone reflects years of dedication and determination on his part. The course he has completed is highly challenging, reflecting the high standards imposed by the Costs Lawyer Standards Board and the ever-increasing complexity of costs law.
Luke’s qualification is not only a well-deserved personal success but also a valuable addition to our team’s expertise. Each step in professional development strengthens the service we provide to our clients, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact of Luke’s skills in practice.
We decided to ask Luke some questions about his journey and hopes for the next stages of his career.
- What inspired you to pursue a career in law?
What inspired me to pursue a career in law initially was a mixture of a strong sense of justice, a desire to make a difference, an interest in problem-solving, and the prestige around the profession. Since about the age of 15 I was pretty dead set on pursuing a career in law, and since then I have proven myself right, after all these years. It’s an amazing profession.
- Can you tell us a bit about your route to qualification?
Like a lot of people, if you’d have asked me what a Costs Lawyer was before 2022, I would not have been able to tell you.
For my undergraduate degree, I opted to do a Law LLB as my teachers had encouraged me to attend University. I chose to go to my local University – the University of Greenwich where I commuted in on my little motorbike every day. I absolutely loved it there and ended up achieving a high 2:1 overall, graduating in June of 2022.
Not long thereafter came the daunting task of finding my first “legal” job. I applied for absolutely everything and everything even remotely related to the legal profession, as I was dead set on becoming a Solicitor at that point – still not knowing anything about the costs profession or costs lawyers in general. That was, until I landed a job as a Costs Draftsman not long after my graduation.
After about 8 months of learning the ropes and becoming quite proficient at costs work, I was offered the opportunity to undertake what was, in my mind, the costs equivalent of a training contract. I was eager to accept and began the CLPQ in February of 2024. Luckily for me my degree exempted me from having to do Tort and Contract Law again!
I passed every CLPQ module that I wasn’t exempt from and ended up qualifying as a Costs Lawyer on 18 August 2025. During that period, I have helped hundreds of people indirectly achieve the access to justice they deserve – and I am very proud of that.
- What was the most challenging part of your training?
The most challenging part of the training for me, was balancing my work life, social life and the demands of the course during the final exam season in the summer of 2025.
The demands of the exams really do push your ability to remember sheer amounts of information to the limit, and before you know it you’re reciting the CPR in your front room at 3 in the morning. My routine for about a month leading up to the exams was to get up for work in the morning, log off, and then revise until late into the night or early into the morning.
An honourable mention, though, was preparing budgets, bills and some points of dispute for completely fictional cases for the costs pleadings module, which did hurt my soul a little bit – as it was good quality work (which I felt as if it had almost gone to waste)!
- Was there a particular moment when you felt you’d really grown as a lawyer?
While it is difficult to point to one specific example, there was a moment where I settled a very large bill at around the 80%-mark Pre-Part 8 after the opposing side had been adamant they would not increase from the interim payments already raised to that point.
I managed to secure my client a significant additional sum to what had already been offered, without having to issue any Part 8 Proceedings through sheer argumentation and analysis of case law. It was and remains a great feeling when you send a well-researched argument back to the other side in response to theirs, and you get a more reasonable proposal as a result.
My client was evidently happy, and that was when I felt it. I have secured costs for hundreds of Claimants who needed it, and I am proud to be part of a system that helps ensure access to justice when it is needed and deserved.
- How did you stay motivated during the more demanding phases of your training?
Good music really helped keep me motivated while revising and “bashing out” the coursework.
On a more serious note, the knowledge that I would gain another degree-level qualification and become a qualified lawyer kept me motivated during the more demanding phases of the course, as I felt like I would get something worthwhile out of it. “Costs Lawyer” is also a really nice title and helps people identify that you know your stuff.
The course was also a great place to meet people of a similar career to yourself, which is quite refreshing as running into another Costs Draftsman or Costs Lawyer is quite rare in your day-to-day life. I made a couple of friends on the course who helped me stay motivated as we did the coursework and exams at the same time.
- What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting their legal journey?
Don’t limit your own horizons to strictly the “traditional” way to qualify. When we start our law degrees or even A levels, we tend to set our mind to one rigid goal and not deviate from it. In the current climate that can only be detrimental.
We all start out thinking we are going to be either a Solicitor or a Barrister without considering the other options. I read every so often about people struggling to get a training contract following their graduation, and then I think about my own career and where I am now.
I do not regret taking that leap of faith into my costs career rather than wondering what might have been. It might not the “conventional” way to become a lawyer, but it is a great option which I genuinely believe deserves more attention from those interested in a career in law.
- Were there any unexpected hurdles you encountered along the way?
For me, coming out of university in 2022 while also having worked while I was studying then, had sort of prepared me for working and studying at the same time. I almost knew what to expect as the experience (for me at least) had been quite similar in balancing my work/social/academic life during university, and then again while undertaking this course.
I’m quite fortunate that I hadn’t been out of that environment for too long, I think I possibly would have struggled to do the coursework and exams if I had been out that “academic loop” for several years, as I know a few others on the course that had been. It certainly wasn’t trivial, balancing the demands of the job alongside that of the course.
The course did however touch on some areas I had not been familiar with as part of my day-to-day job. Drafting a skeleton argument, for instance, was completely new to me when doing my advocacy module. It was therefore quite gratifying when the Barrister who was acting as the mock “Judge” on the day to comment that I and my opponent had both “prepared this thing to death”!
- What area of costs work are you most excited to undertake now that you’re qualified?
I’m eager to carry on what I’ve been doing throughout my period of study – which is primarily clinical negligence work.
The benefit to working for Renvilles as an external firm though, is that I’ve been exposed to all sorts of interesting claims outside of the typical clinical negligence, like human rights claims. I am happy knowing that what I do indirectly contributes to these people accessing the justice they deserve.
Even though my period of study is now done, I’m excited to keep carrying on this work and to potentially start dipping my toes into advocacy as I particularly enjoyed that CLPQ module.
- Who or what has been your biggest support throughout your qualification journey?
My wonderful fiancé, and my amazing mentors, friends and colleagues at Renvilles Costs Lawyers – forever putting up with my questions as I have progressed over the last couple of years. And copious amounts of caffeine.
My manager Claire, and my boss Mike have both been especially supportive of me throughout my qualification journey and I am grateful to them both for where I am today.
- How does it feel to finally be a qualified costs lawyer?
It feels great, I feel like I have succeeded in what I set out to do, all the way back when I started doing my law degree.
It feels great to be qualified like most of the people in my firm are, like I am now “part of the club” so to speak. I also feel as if the qualification and the title it confers will lend me more credibility within my job in general, which is also great.
