Shulmans
No of Partners: 11
No of Assistant Solicitors: 17
No of Trainees: 7
www.shulmans.co.uk
Jeremy Shulman remains at the helm of the firm he created in 1981. Since then, Shulmans has grown and now boasts almost 40 lawyers with 11 partners, 17 assistant solicitors and 7 trainees.
Arguably, Shulman’s strongest practice is its property department which has a particular specialism in advising housebuilders and numbers some of the major names in the field as clients, including Persimmon and Bellway. Such is the reputation of the department led by Rosemary Edwards and Tim Halstead that it attracted Pinsent Masons partner, Kevin Hostford, to leave the national firm to join Shulmans in 2002.
The firm has also spent considerable time and effort in building up its corporate finance practice, focused on the owner-managed business (OMB) sector. It has developed a specialism in MBOs and MBIs and expanded from 3 to 7 solicitors strong in recent years. Other strong commercial areas include litigation, commercial property, employment and general commercial work.
As is common for firms that market themselves towards OMBs, the firm has a strong private client division, offering services in tax, trusts, estates and matrimonial advice. Unusually, however, for a firm chasing the commercial market, it also has a legal aid practice, covering crime and family law.
One of the firm’s distinctive characteristics, says Jeremy Shulman, is in its approach to clients, which means getting to know clients and their companies individually and finding out what makes them tick. Other defining characteristics include personal service, individuality and competitiveness on cost.
The characteristics Shulmans looks for in its lawyers are high skills, professionalism, precision, commitment and hard work, Shulman says. “Each member of staff must take a businessman’s approach to the world.”
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