Russell Jones & Walker
No of Partners: 46
No of Assistant Solicitors: 44
www.rjw.co.uk
Along with Thompsons and Irwin Mitchell, Russell Jones & Walker is one of the few large firms which specialises in acting for individual rather than corporate clients.
Historically, Russell Jones & Walker has sourced many of its clients through the trade union movement. While this remains important (it lists AMICUS, Prospect and the Police Federation of England & Wales amongst its clients), the firm has been working hard to directly attract individual clients to the firm.
Although the firm remains best known for claimant personal injury and employment law, there has been steady growth in other practice areas orientated toward individual clients. These include strong white collar crime, defamation and sports law practices. The firm also set up an arrangement with financial advisors Towry Law to provide non-union clients with access to financial services advice.
Another, perhaps more controversial, development in the firm’s efforts to win more clients from outside the trade union movement was the purchase of the Claims Direct brand from its administrators after the original company went into administration in 2002. Now re-named ‘New Claims Direct’, and shorn of the business model that led it its original demise, the operation is based in the firm’s Birmingham office, whose 12 other lawyers concentrate on claimant personal injury work and crime.
The personal injury market has been a tough place to operate in recent years, and Russell Jones & Walker was in the process of a review of its business at the time of writing. Whatever the result, the firm is unlikely to abandon its focus on individual clients in favour of corporate ones or insurance companies.
“We believe that upholding the legal rights of individuals is at the heart of a civilised society,” says Birmingham managing partner, Richard Langdon.
“This belief has been central to our business. We have built an impressive reputation for vigorously and successfully protecting our clients' interests. We enjoy a formidable reputation as Trade Union/Staff Association and work place lawyers. Our reputation has been built through the excellence of our service and the results that we consistently achieve for our clients.”
So as well as being service-orientated and fulfilling the technical criteria, anyone wishing to join Russell Jones & Walker will need to share the firm’s values as well.
“We look for people with ambition and dynamism committed to driving the business forward,” says Langdon.
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