No of Partners: 78
No of Assistant Solicitors: 143
Other Fee Earners: 124 |
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Clarke Willmott is a Top 100 law firm. It acts for local and national businesses of all sizes, and advises wealthy individuals. Its lawyers have a simple, guiding principle: by understanding their clients they can help them to develop their business, or their assets. As a result the firm has more than doubled in size and turnover in five years and now has offices in the Midlands, the South and South West.
The firm has 52 partners and over 500 staff (including 200 fee earners). This year (2003/04), turnover was £26.7m, representing 22% growth on the previous year.
Clarke Willmott offers a wide range of legal services, including corporate and commercial, property and planning, employment, dispute resolution, personal injury, tax and trusts and family. However, the factor that sets it apart is its focus on industry sectors. The firm has invested in its relationships with certain key sectors, investing time to understand the issues and challenges unique to each, and has enjoyed impressive growth as a result. On the commercial side, its chosen sectors are: residential and commercial property development, property investment, sport and media, food and drink, leisure and licensing, insurance and volume personal injury. The firm also acts for high-net worth clients, providing both legal and financial advice.
Clarke Willmott’s sector specialisation also allows it to specialise in areas that other firms don’t. For instance, its wide range of property skills coupled with the reputation of its planning team (it has the top-rated team in the region) gives it a strong offering in urban renewal. Those same property skills coupled with its sports sector expertise have allowed it to develop a growing practice in stadium development.
Indeed, the firm’s reputation and client base now extends far beyond its traditional South-West base. Recent client wins include a London advertising agency, mixed-use property developers across the UK, high-street retailers, multi-national food chains and football league clubs. It has also, at a time of corporate downturn, seen its corporate and commercial practice emerge as one of the fastest growing areas in the firm. The sport team also completed an innovative financial restructure of Bristol Rugby Club, and won business from Gloucester RFC. In the wake of the England Rugby team’s World Cup victory it also, notably, secured work for the British Lions 2005 tour to New Zealand.
The firm continues to win higher-cap real estate deals. In 2004 it acted for a house-builder plc on its acquisition of a development company for £24m – one of the UK’s largest land acquisitions by a housing developer. The commercial developer team also advised on a £45m leisure development project in Pembrokeshire.
Dispute resolution is a key practice area across the firm. In addition to its commercial litigation work for a wide range of businesses, Clarke Willmott is well known for its personal injury work for major insurance companies. It has also extended its practice into the financial services market, advising a wide range of banks and lenders. Its commercial litigation teams, which operate in all offices, are specialists in administrative law, financial services litigation (the firm won significant compensation gains for Equitable Life policyholders) and international fraud. The firm has four qualified mediators experienced in alternative dispute resolution.
The firm’s private capital team confirmed its national reputation when partner Peter Nellist was named - by the FT’s Money Management magazine - Financial Planner of the Year ahead of all financial advisers in the UK. Nellist was the first solicitor ever to win the award. The firm has seen a dramatic increase in the value and quality of its client base over the last year. |
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Other Offices:
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Birmingham
138 Edmund Street
Birmingham
B3 2ES
T: 0121 234 9400
F: 0121 234 9540
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Southampton
Stoneham Gate
Stoneham Lane
Southampton
SO50 9NW
T: 023 8062 4400
F: 023 8062 4450
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Taunton
Blackbrook Gate
Blackbrook Park Avenue
Taunton
TA1 2PG
T: 01823 442266
F: 01823 445800
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Our Address
Clarke Willmott
1 Georges Square
Bath Street
Bristol
BS1 6BA
UK
T: 0117 941 6600
F: 0117 917 7025
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