North West Law

The Monthly Publication of the Manchester Law Society

January 2014NewsWeightmans wins for Innovation

page 6

HJS continues to growpage 8

Roberts Jackson hat trick of awardspage 8

Personal Injury app hits the marketpage 9

FeaturesCity ProfilePaul Griffiths, High Sheriff of Greater Manchester and Chairman of The Monastery

page 13Talking Heads“Where does branding sit in the legalmarket?” page 14

Slater Heelis: From Peterloo to C3POpage 16

RegularsManchester Law Society Conferences

page 4Members Reward Cardsee your latest offers... page 18The World according to Fran

page 29Monthly ComptitionWin 2 courses with wine at Cafe Istanbul

page 29

Single issue £3.50, 12 month subscription £54.00free to members

The Xcellence FactorIn just a few months the Manchester Legal Community will be celebrating legal excellence in the city at the 2014 Manchester LegalAwards. Julia Baskerville talks to some of the previous winners...The Manchester Law Soci-ety and the ManchesterEvening News are onceagain bringing you theManchester Legal Awards2014. The region's out-standing talent will be ho-noured at a glamorous andglittering black tie dinneron Thursday 6 March 2014at The Midland Hotel.

Now firmly established onthe legal calendar, the Man-chester Legal Awards recog-nise and reward the widerange of skills and talent thisregion has to offer.

As we approach the fifthLegal Awards it seems an op-portune time to take a lookback at previous winners andsee where they are now andhow their careers and firmshave progressed since win-ning their award.

Eversheds have won anaward every year since its in-ception. They have taken thePro Bono/Community Initia-tive, Employment Team, Liti-gation Team, theCorporate/Commercial Teamand Large Law Firm award, aswell as individual solicitorswinning a variety of awards.Senior Partner of the Man-chester office, MichaelClavell-Bate comments “‘It isa huge honour to win MLSawards. We have been in-credibly fortunate to win a

good number over the last 4years. Well established nowas a credible and leadingevent in the North West’slegal calendar. It is a highlyrewarding experience to re-port a success to the wholeoffice the day after theawards –the immediate lift inmorale is very visible withevery member of the firmrightly feeling that they havecontributed to that success’

Susan Leach of QualitySolici-tors Abney Garsden won theLegal Executive of the Year in2013. Since then she hasbeen awarded a training con-tract with the firm and willqualify in June 2014. This isSusan’s second career, havingpreviously worked in phar-macologist conducting re-

search into birth defects be-fore moving into Sales andMarketing. Susan says “Win-ning the award confirmedthat I was doing the rightthing. When I qualify as a so-licitor later this year I hopethis will stand me in goodstead in my job applications,it has been very encourag-ing.”

Gemma Harris was the recip-ient of the Trainee SolicitorsAward in 2011. Howeverupon qualification Gemmafound herself without a joband says that winning theaward was a great bonuswhen applying for posts andduring interviews. She says“At the time it was a realstruggle, many firms wereconcerned about the impact

that that Jackson Reviewwould have on PI and jobsfor newly qualified solicitorswere few and far between.”Gemma did find temporarywork with MPH Solicitors be-fore moving to DWF andthen to Berrymans LaceMawer where she now spe-cialises in clinical negligence.

Chief Executive of Manches-ter Law Society, Fran Eccles-Bech says “The ManchesterLegal Awards are the high-light in the City’s legal calen-dar and celebrate theexcellence of firms and indi-viduals in the city. Nomina-tions are now closed for the2014 Awards, but tickets forthe event are still available.Please contact the Society formore details.”

We are very pleased to announce the formation of aManchester Law Society Family Law Committee whichwill be chaired by one of our council members,Amanda McAlister of Slater & Gordon UK LLP.

We have a vibrant Family Law community in Manchesterand it is important that Manchester Law Society providesa platform from which their views can be heard as well ascreating a forum in which issues and concerns facing fam-ily law practitioners can be discussed.

It is intended that the committee will incorporate practi-tioners from a variety of Family Law practices and cham-

Manchester Law Society Family Law Committee

bers. If you are interested in becoming a member of thiscommittee please contact Fran Eccles Bech, Chief Execu-tive at Manchester Law Society at FranEccles-Bech@man-chesterlawsociety.org.uk or on 0161 241 7470 to expressyour interest.

We anticipate that the committee will be meeting once aquarter and will cover a range of matters including practi-cal advice for practitioners, discussion of topical issues inFamily Law and co-ordinating educational seminars inconjunction with Manchester Law Society

3Manchester Law Society President’s Column

Meet the President...David Joseph was electedthe President of ManchesterLaw Society at its AGM onlast month. Originally fromLiverpool, David says thatdespite leading Manches-ter’s legal profession hisfootball allegiances will re-main firmly with LiverpoolFC!

David moved to Manchesterbecause he could see theopportunities within its vi-brant business community.He joined Zatman and Co,where he specialised incommercial litigation (andcontinues to do so). He wasmade a partner within twoyears of qualification. After18 years he moved toGorvins and earlier this yearjoined the innovative gun-nercooke LLP, where he is apartner.

David has great respect forthe work that ManchesterLaw Society undertakes onbehalf of its members, say-ing; “The Society has pro-vided a long-standingsupport network for Man-chester lawyers. There aremany members who are ex-periencing difficulties incombining the running of apractice that provides valu-

able access to the most vul-nerable and the require-ments of running aprofitable business in diffi-cult times. Manchester LawSociety is able to offer prac-tical advice and supportguidance to all of its mem-bers from the newly quali-fied to senior members ofthe profession.”

David says that the Societyoffers an extremely compre-hensive and cost-effectiveCPD programme which he islooking to expand with fur-ther key note conferencesfrom respected speakersplanned for his year.

“I would like to thank Franand the staff at ManchesterLaw Society. They see Presi-dents come and go but theyare the life blood of the soci-ety and I will be looking tothem for lots of support dur-ing the coming year” Davidadded.

As President David wants tocontinue the work of previ-ous Presidents and moveaway from the image ofbeing an ‘older’ organisation.Over the past few years theaverage age of the Society’smembers has decreased

and this is attributed to theintroduction of amongstother things, student mem-bership. David said “I want toencourage younger mem-bers of the profession to be-come active members of theManchester Law Society andbecome involved in its activ-ities.”

David said that finance iskey to the future of Man-chester Law Society and itneeds to pay its way. He islooking to expand on thesuccess of MLS Advantageand introducing othermeasures to increase fundsin the knowledge that an ef-fect of mergers and acquisi-tions within the city is thatthe number of corporatemembers will decrease.

David is a keen advocate ofPro Bono work and recentlyspoke alongside former na-tional law society presidentand the Attorney General’spro bono advocate MichaelNapier at Manchester Uni-versity. “I would encouragestudents to undertake somepro bono work, its shows anenthusiasm for the law andsets them apart when jobapplications are being con-sidered. David did stress

however that pro bono workshould not and must not re-place legal aid.”

David recognises that hesteps up to his role as Presi-dent at a time when thereare significant challengesfacing Manchester lawyers.Helping businesses to adaptand respond to these chal-lenges is something he isvery much looking forwardto, in addition to meetinglocal practitioners and otherprofessionals through hisambassadorial role.

Away from the law, David isa non-executive director ofCallcare Ltd and has been aTrustee of the children’s’charity MedEquip4Kidswhich he has nominated ashis charity of the year. Theyraise money to provide vitalpaediatric medical equip-ment and facilities for hospi-tals and community healthteams in the north west.

Finally he adds that he is aloyal member of SWIM -Scousers Working in Man-chester!”

Julia Baskerville

David Joseph, President of Manchester Law Society

4 Manchester Law Society News

News from Bridge Street CPD ProgrammeManagement Stage OneThis is a compulsory course for all solicitors in the first three full training years after qualifica-tion. Other lawyers are welcome if the content of the course fits their training needs and levelof experience.

Each course is limited to a maximum of 20 delegates.

Course ContentManaging Finance - Business planning, key performance indicators, funding and solvency, un-derstanding profit, controlling costs, working capital control and cash flow. Managing Clients - Understanding what motivates clients, delivering what clients want in theway they want it, the retainer and solicitors' professional obligations, organising your client re-lationships effectively.Managing People - Delegation and managing other people's work, effective teamwork and de-cision-making processes, how to get the most from a meeting.

Date: Tuesday 14th January 2014 CPD: 7 hoursVenue: To Be ConfirmedSpeaker: Doug Robinson, Kinch Robinson LtdTime: Registration & Coffee – 9.15am – 9.30am Seminar – 9.30am – 5.30pm

(an hour for lunch)

Cost: £160.00 + VAT (£192.00 total) – Member delegates£180.00 + VAT (£216.00 total) – Non-member delegates

Travel Law Conference 2014A new year brings new challenges but also new opportunities for the Legal Profession. TravelLaw claims continue to increase in number and appear to have withstood the bulk of the Jack-son reforms. To seize upon the opportunities afforded by such work, this Travel Law seminarwill equip practitioners with all the tools they need to be able to deal practically and effectivelywith such claims. The seminar will take practitioners from identifying and starting the claimthrough to the successful conclusion of it

Thursday 16th January 2014 - 3 CPD

Venue: The Midland Hotel, Peter Street, Manchester, M60 2DS

Cost: MLS Members - £40.00 + VAT (£48.00)Non Members - £60.00 + VAT (£72.00)

Understanding Accounts for LitigatorsA series of seminars designed for Litigators, brought to you by Manchester Law Society & BakerTilly.

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 - CPD 1Speaker: Rob Parry - Baker Tilly

We come across company accounts in a large number of cases, but do you fully understand theformat and the jargon? Your accruals and your EBITDA? In this session, Rob Parry will explain what you can – and can’t– tell about a business from specific sets of accounts.

Registration at 6.00pm for a 6.30PM start and 7.30pm finish (nibbles & networking until 8.00pm!)Venue: Baker Tilly, 3 Hardman Street, Manchester.Cost to attend: Members of MLS £24 (inc. VAT) Non members £48 (inc. VAT)

Developing Personal & Team ResilienceBeating stress before it beats you! A study has concluded that stress has become the numberone cause of long-term workplace absence. (CIPD)/Simply health Absence Management survey(2011)

In this seminar, Juliette Yardley explores resilience, what it is and how we can develop skills toboost our ability to cope through testing times both as individuals and as teams. The emphasisis around the understanding that developing resilience factors has a proactive affect beforestress occurs.Key areas we will address are the roles of:

· Learnt behaviours and habits· Positive psychologyEmotional IntelligenceStrength in numbers, a team wide approach.

DATE: Thursday 6th February 2014 VENUE: To Be Confirmed TIME: Registration & Breakfast - 8.00am Seminar - 8.30am - 10.00amCOST: Member rate £20.00 + VAT (£24.00) Non Member rate £40.00 + VAT (£48.00)

TO BOOK ON ANY OF THE ABOVE COURSES, EMAIL VictoriaRidge@manchesterlawsociety.org.uk

The Society’s Annual General meeting took place on Monday, 2nd December, 2013. DesHudson, Chief Executive of The Law Society attended the Annual General meeting, hav-ing addressed the Council meeting beforehand.

The following were elected as the Officers of the Society:

David Joseph of gunnercooke as PresidentLouise Straw of Burton Copeland as Vice PresidentJon Hainey of DWF as Honorary TreasurerMichael Hardacre of Pannone as Honorary Secretary

Nick Davenport of turner parkinson and John Dunn of Walker Smith Way were re-electedonto council and Charlotte Brinsely of Slater & Gordon, Gwyn Lewis of Burton Copeland,Greg Almond of Almond Solicitors, Lucy Baker of Brabners and Adrian Kwintner of Mills &Reeve were elected as new members of Council.

The new President of Manchester Law Society, David Joseph with Louise Straw, Vice President

Louise Straw, David Joseph and Des Hudson

Outgoing President, Sucheet Amin and President of Manchester Law Society, David Joseph

Regulatory Affairs Committee UpdateHere we are at the start ofa new year which, giventhe excitement of the lastquarter, shows earlypromise of being just asunpredictable and actionpacked as we have cometo expect.

The Law Society has had lit-tle down time over the holi-day season and starts theyear licking its wounds as itrecovers from the drama ofthe Special General Meetingon 17th December whereNicholas Fluck and DesHudson were held to ac-count for their representa-tion of the legal professionin discussions with the jus-tice secretary. Without ashadow of doubt the legalaid debacle will inevitablycontinue to create manyheadlines over the next 12months as criminal lawyersfight for survival.

This month, rather than justreviewing recent develop-ments, I will offer some ofmy views on risk and regula-tory issues which firms mayhave to face this year:

New Years resolutions forthe SRA

What better way to startafresh than with a com-pletely new cast of charac-ters to take centre stage.Paul Philip, will have theeyes of the regulated pro-

fession on him when hetakes the floor in Februaryas Chief Executive and it willbe interesting to seewhether or not he sticks tothe same script as his pred-ecessor or if he embracesthe opportunity he has toestablish his credibility byanswering the SRA criticsand shaking the professionout of its apathy towards itsregulators. No doubt theSRAs Risk Outlook for 2014,when published, will give usall some food for thought.

The referral fee ban in2014…

It is no surprise that the re-ferral fee ban and its conse-quences continue to rumbleon into January. Towardsthe end of 2013 the SRA an-nounced that it had “en-gaged” with 45 firms andlaunched forensic investiga-tions into 10 of them as a re-sult of its probes intoreferral fee ban breaches.Putting aside for a momentthe fact that a forensic in-vestigation can take a con-siderable amount of time, itis questionable how accu-rate a snap shot this lateststep by the SRA will give usof the level of complianceacross the sector. It will beinteresting to see how theregulator flexes its musclesover the course of the year -I have Richard Collins’ com-ment at a conference I at-

tended in November 2013that “2014 will be the year ofenforcement” ringing in myears!

What happened to sepa-ration of powers?

So, what does everyonethink about the SRA’s pro-posal that it be given thepower to increase the finesit can place on traditionallaw firms to bring the penal-ties available to it in linewith those that can be im-posed on an ABS? At pres-ent the SRA can onlyimpose fines of up to £2000on traditional law firms. If itenvisages that a more seri-ous penalty is appropriatethen it has to refer the mat-ter to the Solicitors’ Discipli-nary Tribunal. In contrast itcan fine an ABS up to £250million which many criticshave pointed out is, as far asinconsistencies go, com-pletely bonkers.

The consultation paper[http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/internal-fin-ing-powers.page] explainshow the discrepancy hasarisen and presents somereasoned arguments as towhy the SRA believes tradi-tional law firms and ABSsshould be treated in thesame way. Whilst the cur-rent status quo smacks ofunfairness, is increasing theSRA’s fining powers really

the best way to “fix” theproblem? I do question thefairness of any system thatallows the same entity thatinvestigates the allegedwrong doing also beingable to easily impose suchpotentially eye wateringpenalties. The consultationperiod ends on 7th Febru-ary 2014 and if you have anyviews, there is still time tosubmit these either directlyto the SRA or via myself atmichelle.garlick@weight-mans.com

Consumer panel findsfault with LeO scheme

In a recent study commis-sioned by the Legal ServicesBoard, the Legal ServicesConsumer Panel comparedLeO’s complaints handlingservice with 10 other dis-pute resolution schemes.And whilst Adam Sampson’soutfit fared reasonably well,receiving positive feedbackon fairness and turnaroundspeed, the unit cost of£2,168 per complaint wasadjudged to be higher thansimilar schemes. Since thedata was released the LeOhas pledged to reducethese unit costs over thenext 2 years by 13% which isa worthy goal but I am evenmore curious to see how itintends to tackle the factthat the same study re-

vealed that 70% of com-plainants actually rejectLeO’s decision and that LeOalso receives more judicialreview applications andcomplaints generally thanother comparable ombuds-man schemes…..

And finally…..

Happy Anniversary to allyou COLPs and COFAs outthere!

Believe it or not the SRA arestill tidying up the lose endsleft by firms who failed tonominate compliance offi-cers. A number of warningshave been issued to firmsand the most serious disci-plinary sanction so far hasbeen a rebuke which, whilstembarrassing for those con-cerned, is hardly an exam-ple of the “firm hand” thatwe had assumed the SRAwould take given how fun-damental it has said that itregards these roles to be.Nevertheless we are now 12months into the reign ofCOLP/COFA and the SRA ex-pect us to be seasoned pro-fessionals.

Remember that OutcomesFocused Regulation is an or-ganic beast and, whilstmany firms spent 2013 put-ting into place policies andprocedures to facilitatecompliance with the Hand-

book, COLPs and COFAsneed to remember thattheir role also requires themto identify, monitor andmanage risks on an ongo-ing basis. For those firmsstill relatively new to theconcept of codifying riskand compliance this in-cludes file audits, risk as-sessments, putting in placea supervision structure andreviewing claims and com-plaints. Getting to grips withthe nitty gritty of day to daycompliance is the only wayto fully implement OFRwithin your firm and to reapthe rewards of good riskmanagement.

Michelle GarlickManchester Law SocietyRegulatory Affairs Com-mitteeWeightmans LLP

The National Centre for Cit-izenship and the Law(NCCL) successfully runs the‘Courts of Justice Pro-gramme’ for children andyoung people at legal sitesacross the UK including theRoyal Courts of Justice andUK Supreme Court in Lon-don.

Additional funding from TheLegal Education Foundationmeans that the NCCL can nowextend this innovative educa-tion programme to schools inManchester during Januaryand February 2014. Legal ed-ucation sessions will be deliv-ered to 750 local schoolchildren at Manchester CivilJustice Centre and CrownCourt, Crown Square.

The project aims to raise aspi-rations in children and youngpeople through an increasedunderstanding of the legalsystem and careers availablewithin it. It also aims to pre-vent offending behaviour in

young people through deter-rence.

The NCCL has successfully en-gaged a number of localschools to attend the ‘Courtsof Justice Programme’ at bothlocations in the new year. Weare now looking to recruit arange of legal professionals tosupport the delivery of thesessions by helping withcourtroom workshops, partic-ipating in question and an-swer sessions and talkingabout their experiences in thejustice system.

We only need around 30 min-utes of your time per sessionand by taking part you will

add to your own professionaldevelopment as well as help-ing to widen access to thelegal profession.

This is also a perfect way forcompanies to be more in-volved in their local commu-nities.

If you are interested in sup-porting this unique and excit-ing new provision please getin touch with ManchesterProject Manager Laura Saltervia email laura@nccl.co.uk ortweet @laurasalter4 Visit www.nccl.org.uk formore information about theNCCL and ‘Courts of JusticeProgramme’

New opportunity for professional development

6 Movers & Shakers

National law firm Weight-mans LLP has beat presti-gious competition to scoopthe award for Innovation atthe annual Association ofBid Proposal ManagementProfessionals (APMP) UKAwards 2013.

The awards dinner was part ofthe APMP’s annual confer-ence, acknowledging the or-ganisations that haveexcelled in their tender andproposal presentation overthe past 12 months.

The Innovation award recog-nises the introduction of newways of making a positive im-pact to successful bid andproposal management, andWeightmans was recognisedfor its work, in particular itstender for ServisAir and theaccompanying visual messag-ing.

The firm was commended forits “Look and Feel” project,which revealed innovativeprinciples and techniques thefirm has built upon to ensuretenders have the most posi-tive impact on evaluators.Weightmans saw off toughcompetition from global or-ganisation Siemens and theUK’s leading engineeringbusiness NG Bailey to take thetop spot. Peter McPartland,Business Development Ten-der Manager at Weightmanscollected the award on thenight.

Peter said: “The APMP awardsare an important benchmarkwithin the tender and pro-posal arena and we arethrilled to have been ac-knowledged with the Innova-tion award. At the firm we arealways looking at creativenew ways to communicate

with clients and potentialclients and it is always fantas-tic when we receive positivefeedback - to receive anaward for these efforts is justthe icing on the cake.”

The successful Servisair ten-der was designed by brand-ing experts USP Creative.Alexandra Rose, Managing Di-rector at USP Creative said:

“We are delighted thatWeightmans were awardedthe trophy for innovation. Wealways look to develop freshand original work for everyproject we do, and workingwith Weightmans we wereable to create something re-ally special.

The team at USP were thrilledwith the final result, we’reglad Weightmans – and APMP– were too!”

Weightmans wins for innovation

Ken Newland, CEO of the APMP UK Chapter; Peter McPartland, Business Development Tender Managerat Weightmans; Beth Wingate, CEO of APMP International, and Laurence Greenhow of Ricoh.

Bury based law firmClough & Willis has bol-stered its commercial andcorporate department fol-lowing the appointment ofGuy Lachlan who joins asan associate solicitor.

Guy advises businesses fromsole traders to large multimil-lion pound turnover compa-nies as well as nationalorganisations in various keysectors such as healthcare,engineering, food, insurance,utilities and retail.

He offers the full range ofcommercial and corporatelegal services to his clients,including; business acquisi-tions and disposals, manage-ment buy-ins/buy-outs andrestructuring, shareholderagreements and disputes, di-rectors’ liability advice, aswell as commercial lawneeds covering terms ofbusiness, agency, distributor-ships, licensing and franchis-ing and also partnershipagreements and disputes.

Guy has joined Clough &Willis from Thursfields Solici-tors in Worcestershire; priorto that he worked in Leedsafter starting his career inLondon. He graduated fromDurham University and com-pleted his studies at the Col-lege of Law.

Guy is a regular conferencespeaker on corporate andcommercial law topics andalso professional partnershipissues in the healthcare sec-tor. His appointment followslast month’s announcementthat Grahame Henry hadjoined the firm’s litigationteam.

Shefali Talukdar, managingpartner of Clough & Willis,commented: “As a firm, wehave always boasted a strongcommercial and corporatedepartment and Guy’s arrivalis a great addition. He has areputation for having a solidcommercial acumen which Iknow will be of real benefit

to both our established andnew clients.”

Guy added: “I am delightedto be joining Clough & Willisand am looking forward todriving the commercial andcorporate department for-ward with an emphasis onmeeting and exceeding whatour clients expect of us.”

Clough & Willis Bolsters Commercial & CorporateTeam with New Appointment

Guy Lachlan

Law firm Brabners LLP hasbeen ranked at the top in in-ternational sports law bytwo prestigious legal direc-tories.

And the firm's head of sport,senior partner MauriceWatkins CBE, has been de-scribed as a "legend" in the In-ternational Who's Who ofSports and EntertainmentLawyers saying " he knowsmore about this sector thananyone else you care to men-tion ". He is nominated bypeers as "one of the world'sleading practitioners in sportslaw "..The Chambers Legal Direc-tory for 2014 also places Brab-ners as one of four firms inthe top category in the UK forsports law. It describesWatkins, a former director ofManchester United, as "aneminent practitioner".

Chambers highlights thesports law skills of othermembers of the Brabnersteam in Manchester includingMatthew Bennett, StuartBaird, Michael Blood, JasonSmith and Carol Couse.

Commenting on Brabners,Chambers prints a range ofquotes from industry peerson the firm's position in themarket including; "On foot-

ball cases Brabners are streetsahead. They have more expe-rience on it than anyone else."

On industry knowledge;"They have a huge broad-based understanding ofsport. They are great to workwith and have the joint abilityof being approachable withthe skill set to go with it. Ihave been hugely impressedwith them".

Only last week, Brabners wonan award for “ProfessionalServices to Football “at theNorth West Football Awardsheld at Lancashire CountyCricket Club.

Watkins, who holds severalcharity roles, is also Chairmanof British Swimming Chair-man of Barnsley FC, Chairman

of the Greyhound Board ofGreat Britain and a member ofthe Rugby Football Leagueand Lancashire CountyCricket Club boards.

The Brabners sports law teamadvises on matters such asdisciplinary issues, gover-nance, player transfers andcontracts, dispute resolution,image rights, reputation man-agement, immigration issues,tour arrangements, manage-rial and back-room staff ap-pointments and departures,sponsorship, personal en-dorsements and brand am-bassador arrangements,merchandising, kit supplyarrangements, broadcasting,digital and social media andthe protection and exploita-tion of intellectual propertyrights in sport.

Brabners and Maurice Watkins rankedtop in legal directories

Maurice Watkins

BARRY FRIESLANDER MCIArbCertified Mediator Complex business & matrimonial disputes resolved

Barry holds Certified Elite Mediator status, compliant with the UK Ministry of Justice, EU &UK Civil Mediation Council Mediator Database and is accredited by the ADR Group.

P: 08448 777 888M: 07973 394 803E: info@dispute-resolve.co.ukW: www.dispute-resolve.co.uk

After trading for only 6months, specialist nichepractice Hugh Jones Solici-tors has now grown to en-compass over 20 personnel,including solicitors, legalexecutives, paralegals andadministrators.

The practice is the only inde-pendent Court of Protectionspecialist in the north of Eng-land and probably possesses

means that we understandand adapt to the special chal-lenges faced by our clientsand their family members,with regards to mental healthcapacity problems.”

With our independence, 2014will bring further expansionto the practice.

the most experienced team inits field.

Says Hugh Jones, ManagingDirector ”I am delighted athow the first few monthshave developed and how thepractice is flourishing in allareas. Our ethos is that we al-ways put our clients’ best in-terests at the centre of whatwe do. The experienced teamthat I have brought together

HJS Continues to grow…….

Brabners Sports law PartnerMike Blood has recently re-turned from Bangkokwhere he was a guestspeaker at the inauguralThailand InternationalSports Expo.

Mr Blood was the only lawyerinvited to speak at the presti-gious event. He gave dele-gates an insight into how theEnglish Premier League wasoriginally set up and guid-ance on the rules and regula-tions it has put in place. Hewas joined on stage by SirDavid Richards, the formerchairman of the PremierLeague, who spoke about

football league managementand Brigadier General RichardAndrews who discussed anti-corruption in sport.

Hosted by Siam Sports, amajor TV broadcaster in Thai-land and opened by the ThaiPrime Minister, Yingluck Shi-nawatra, the Thailand Interna-tional Sports Expo attracteddelegates from across theglobe. The audience wasmade up of representativesfrom sports managementcompanies and sports mediaagencies and executives fromthe football industry includ-ing members of the Thai FA, aclient of Brabners. Also in at-

tendance were executivesfrom the Ministry of Tourismand Sports and Sports Au-thority of Thailand.

Commenting on the event,Mr Blood said: “It was an excit-ing chance, not only to meetexisting clients from the ThaiFA but also to share my expe-riences with others who arepassionate about football.The growth of professionalsport in the region and there-fore the growth of sports lawopportunities will be dra-matic and I hope to be part ofand assist in that develop-ment.”

Brabners lawyer speaks at ThailandInternational Sports Expo

Mike Blood (left) on the stage at the Thailand International Sports Expo

Boutique corporate andcommercial law firmHeatons LLP has continuedits expansion with the ap-pointment of Colleen McK-inney as an Associate.

Colleen joins Heatons fromCantor Law. She has a broadreal estate practice coveringreal estate finance - commer-cial and residential - and ad-vocacy.

Headed by Partner StephenEvans-Jones, Heatons’ real es-tate finance team is expand-ing quickly.

“With a fast expanding clientbase and ambitious plans forthe future, it is an excitingtime to join the firm,” saidColleen. “Having workedclosely with Stephen for anumber of years at my previ-ous firm, I am delighted tojoin him at Heatons,” sheadded.

Welcoming Colleen toHeatons, Stephen Evans-Jones said:“Colleen is a wel-come addition to the team.Technically excellent andcommercially astute she has awell rounded skill set and

builds excellent relationshipswith clients.”

Matt Fleetwood, ManagingPartner at Heatons says realestate is key area of focus forthe firm moving forward.

“We are delighted Colleen hasjoined us,” said Matt. “The tim-ing is important as our real es-tate practice grows fromstrength to strength.”

Heatons builds real estate finance team

Stockport law firm SASDaniels LLP recorded itshighest ever monthly feesin October 2013, billing£680,000, an increase of 13per cent on the previoushighest month, November2012. This contributed tothe firm’s £3.4 million feesin the half year ending 31stOctober 2013, anotherrecord for the firm and aten per cent increase year-on-year.

Spearheading this growthwere the real estate andcommercial litigation teams,which both delivered theirhighest ever billing months.Other notable performancescame from the family team,which enjoyed its bestmonth in almost a year, andthe corporate team, whichposted its second highest

billing month to date.

Senior partner JonathanWhittaker said “Our resultsare a testament to the hardwork of everyone at SASDaniels to make the firm suc-cessful. Delivering not only arecord breaking month butalso our highest ever halfyear results is a fantasticachievement at a time whenthe legal industry is goingthrough significant change.Clients are demanding a newapproach to the way they se-cure legal advice and we areadapting well to meet theserequirements.”

Nigel Read, partner and jointhead of the real estate team,said “This increase reflectsour success in winning newbusiness from new sourcesof work and the upturn in the

economy has at the sametime seen record numbers ofexisting clients returning toSAS Daniels.

The team enjoyed our bestmonth on record due to acombination of our existingcommercial clients becom-ing busier, new clients beingtaken on and a sharp in-crease in residential propertyactivity.”

The firm’s progress has beenmarked by its best evershowings in renowned legaldirectories Legal 500 andChambers UK. This followedthe firm’s announcement inQ1 of a seven per cent year-on-year rise to £1.6 million.

SAS Daniels delivers record performanceand growth in half year results

The team at Hugh Jones Solicitors

A firm of Cheshire solicitorshas settled a landmark1000th claim against air-lines in their fight for pas-senger rights. Since theirfoundation in February2013, Bott & Co have recov-ered over €1million(£825,000) for 2,100 from36 different airlines for pas-sengers on delayed andcancelled flights, thanks toEuropean legislation.

Passengers whose flights arecancelled, delayed over threehours, or are denied boardingare entitled to compensationunder EU Regulation261/2004. Bott & Co are theleading UK law firm offering aflight compensation serviceand have settled cases in as

quick as 7 days and fromflights dating as far back asOctober 2007.

Delayed passengers can usethe claim calculator on theirwebsite www.bottaviation.co.uk to in-stantly assess whether theymight have a claim and arealso offered a free claim letterto send to airlines. If theydon’t want the hassle of deal-ing with the claim themselvesor, as has proven to be thecase, the airlines attempt tofob them off they can use thefirm’s no-win no-fee service.

Bott & Co have access to anunrivalled wealth of historicalflight data and technical ex-pertise provided by their part-

ners EUclaim, allowing themto put together detailedweather reports and reportsto combat airline’s arguments.

Paul Hinchliffe, ManagingPartner at Bott & Co said: “Wehave shown we will stand upto the airlines on behalf ofpassengers. We are helpingDavid take on Goliath, wehave issued small claims trackproceedings on behalf of over1,000 passengers. We willcontinue to battle until air-lines recognise their legal ob-ligations. Regulations areclear and if the airlines payconsumers where theyshould then it won’t be neces-sary to involve a law firm.”

Law firm settles 1000th flight compensation claimfor delayed passengers

8 Movers & Shakers

Roberts Jackson Solicitorshave recently had the pleas-ure of celebrating a stringof successful awards eventson a Local, National and Eu-ropean level.

On 21st November RobertsJackson attended the 3rd an-nual Wilmslow and Maccles-field Business Awards afterbeing shortlisted both lastyear for Business of the Year,Turnover over 1 Million andagain this year for Business ofthe Year, Turnover over 5 mil-lion. With fierce completion inthe area Roberts Jacksonwere delighted to win theaward. Karen Jackson, Direc-tor was joined on stage withLorna Vanderkamp, AssociateDirector and Gladys SwaimRutter, Associate Director toaccept the award and the cer-tificate.

An extra special evening forRoberts Jackson took placeon the 28th November whenRoberts Jackson won theaward for our Education andTraining Initiative on a Na-tional scale at the British LegalAwards, in London. This wasparticularly significant as thefirm had been nominated forthis award for the last 3 yearsin a row. The British LegalAwards are held annually andinvite the best of the best inthe legal sector to attend andcompete for numerousawards. They recognise theimportant contribution thelegal business communitymakes, not just to the UKeconomy but also to thewider community. Two mem-bers from Roberts Jacksonwere there to accept theaward on the firm’s behalf.

On top of the firm’s success atthe British Legal Awards andthe Wilmslow and Maccles-

field Awards the hard workand dedication of GladysSwaim-Rutter our AssociateDirector and Chief OperatingOfficer has been nationallyrecognised. Gladys wasnamed this year’s Opera-tions/Practice Manager of theYear at the Eclipse ProclaimPersonal Injury Awards.Roberts Jackson was short-listed for 5 awards thatevening including ClaimantPersonal Injury Team of theYear. The Firm’s Associate Di-rector, Lorna Vanderkampwas also shortlisted forClaimant Personal InjuryLawyer of the Year on thesame evening.

These two awards also comeat a time when the firm hasbeen recognised on a Euro-pean level and has been se-lected to represent the UK asa National Champion for theEuropean Business Awards. Tobe recognised by an organisa-tion which operates in 31 dif-ferent Countries across thecontinent for demonstratingsuccess innovation and ethicswithin the European BusinessCommunity, is truly excitingfor the firm as a whole. Theawards are due to take placein April 2014 and until thispoint careful staging takesplace to reduce the finalists. In

addition, the public are alsoable to vote online for theirfavourite National Championfrom each country and can goon to become European Pub-lic Champions. To win thisaward the firm is required togain votes.To register yourvote go to the EuropeanAwards website www.busi-nessawardseurope.com andthen follow the instructionsbelow:-

1. Please select the UnitedKingdom flag2. Scroll down to the RobertsJackson video link, click onRoberts Jackson3. Place your email into the“Vote for this Entry!” box

You will be sent an email fromThe European BusinessAwards to verify your emailaddress. You must verify youremail address by clicking onthe link provided within theemail you receive from TheEuropean Business Awards.Voting closes on 2nd January2014.

The Firm has been shortlistedfor no less than 26 awards intotal in 2013 and looks for-ward to gaining furtherrecognition in 2014

Roberts Jackson celebrates hat-trick of awards

Leading barristers’ setKings Chambers and Man-chester Law School haveannounced a new collabo-ration, aimed at deliveringhigh quality academic andvocational support to stu-dents.

Dr Nicholas Braslavsky QC,head of Kings Chambers andProfessor Geraint Howells,head of Manchester LawSchool, have worked to-gether to include a voca-tional dimension during thestudent’s undergraduate ca-reers without diluting the ac-ademic content of the coresyllabus and modules. In ad-dition to new study modules,new placements schemeshave been arranged be-tween Kings and a networkof solicitors firms, as well asmock trials, and a variety ofother contact points be-tween Kings’ 90+ barristersand the student body.

“I am extremely pleased tohave forged much closerlinks with the ManchesterUniversity Law School whichis regarded as one of thefinest institutions in thiscountry,” says Dr BraslavskyQC. “As a well establishedand forward thinking organ-isation, the university law

school recognises its respon-sibility to prepare and guidestudents towards employ-ment alongside their pursuitof academic achievement.Those of us at Kings are keento play an active part in theprocess of preparing the stu-dents for a life in the law. Ofcourse, the school has beenoutward looking for a longtime but perhaps this addedseries of elements mightserve to diminish the fearsand difficulties surroundingemployment and employa-bility in the law”.

As an honorary lecturer atthe university law school, DrBraslavsky QC has conducteda lecture series on advocacyfor the past two academicyears. There are plans for anew civil litigation studymodule, field trips to theRoyal Courts of Justice andthe Central Criminal Court inLondon and further and bet-ter mentoring support.

Kings Chambers has spon-sored the school’s mootingprogramme for some time.Students can expect regulartalks from other members atKings Chambers includingsports law specialist MartinBudworth and public law ex-pert, Sam Karim.

“We place a great deal ofvalue on our new partner-ship with Kings,” adds Profes-sor Howells. “Theirconnections into the work-ing legal community arehighly sought after and willbe extremely useful to stu-dents seeking a doorwayinto the world of work. In ad-dition, our students will gainby handling pro bono caseswith Kings Barristers at theschool’s Legal Advice Centre,giving them access to gen-uine casework at the sharpend of legal practice.”

Dinah Crystal, Director of Ex-ternal Relations and ClinicalEducation at ManchesterLaw School added: “The col-laboration with Kings Cham-bers is a perfect example ofhow our interface with theprofession benefits studentsand the legal community. Byworking at the ManchesterUniversity Legal Advice Cen-tre, solicitors and barristersare able to put somethingback into the profession andhelp guide the next genera-tion towards the world ofwork.”

Kings announces new ManchesterLaw School collaboration

Leading North West lawfirm Brabners has advisedspecialist agricultural anddistribution business NWFGroup plc on its acquisitionof SC Feeds Ltd, a leadinganimal feed manufacturerbased in Stone, Stafford-shire.

The total consideration forthe acquisition is up to£6.75m comprised of £6m incash and up to £0.75m to besatisfied by the issue of newordinary shares in NWF.

NWF, with its heritage in agri-culture, is a leading nationalplayer in the production andsupply of ruminant animalfeed for dairy cows, beef andsheep from its operationsstretching from Scotland toDevon. NWF supplied481,000 tonnes of feed in thefinancial year ended 31 May2013.

SC Feeds has supplied rumi-nant feed since 1991 from itsmill in Stone and produces inexcess of 80,000 tonnes of

Brabners advises on NWF Groupacquisition

compound and blendedproduct per annum.

Richard Whiting, Chief Execu-tive of NWF Group, com-mented, "I am delighted toannounce the acquisition ofSC Feeds which joins the NWFgroup of companies. This ex-citing acquisition is in linewith the strategic ambitionwe have set out to developthe Group towards a greaterfocus on agriculture andmeeting the needs of farmersin the UK.”

Brabners Corporate PartnerRupert Gill led the team advis-ing NWF Group on the acqui-sition, said: “We are delightedto have assisted NWF Groupon another successful acquisi-tion which will add furtherscale to NWF’s agricultural op-erations.”

The corporate legal team atBrabners also included SeniorAssociate Adrian Rogers andSolicitor David Seddon, withspecialist support from Com-mercial Property Partner

Richard Roberts.

Dow Schofield Watts pro-vided lead advisory and duediligence services to NWFGroup with Baker Tilly provid-ing tax due diligence services.Knights, led by Adrian Rush-ton, provided legal adviceand Baldwins, led by MarkSelby, provided accountingadvice to the sellers.

Rupert Gill

Eventus Legal successfully recruit legal professionals for Private Practice across the North West on both a contract and permanent basis, from Paralegal to Senior Partner level. We are trusted as “the first point of contact”

for many firms to resolve their recruitment needs whether contingent or retained.

Please call us on 01524 542655 or 07970252772 or email siobhan.courtney@eventuslegal.com if you have any recruitment needs or if you are a candidate who would like some honest, straight forward career advice

www.eventuslegal.co.uk

Full service law firm JMWSolicitors LLP has an-nounced that its’ revenuefor the first 6 months oftheir financial year is up by26%. This puts the firm wellon course to achieve morethan its £16 million targetby year end.

Revenue for first 6 months ofthe financial year 2013 / 2014was £7.98 million comparedto £6.3 million last year, an in-crease of 26%. The mergerwith Goodman Harvey is re-sponsible for 6% of thegrowth so like for like growthwas still 20%. At the sametime last year (October 2012)JMW declared a 16% increasein turnover and a 23% in-crease in profit on the similarperiod in 2011. Howeverprofit for the half year ending31st October 2013, is up astaggering 133%.

All departments, apart fromone, reported increased rev-enue with Corporate leadingthe way with a 102% increase,followed by Commercial Liti-gation with a 77% increase,then Commercial Propertywith a 64% increase, with Pri-vate Client having a 63% in-crease, Business Crime &Regulation have seen a 55%increase and Family with 30%.Personal Injury and ClinicalNegligence remained the twolargest revenue producers, ac-counting for 37.5% of rev-enue.

The firm’s Lawshare networkwhich receives work from 120North West solicitors were in-

structed on 46% more mat-ters than 12 months ago andthe JMW website became thelargest introducer of newclients to the firm.

The month of October sawthe highest ever number ofnew matters opened in thefirm (717) and overall thenumber of new matters hasincreased by 15% despitechanges in legislation affect-ing certain work types.

The firm was recently namedas one of only four law firmsin the Top 300 SMEs in theNorth West produced byNorth West Insider Magazine,whilst also moving up 15places in The Lawyer Top 200Law Firms.

Joy Kingsley, Senior Partner atJMW said: “We continue to bevery encouraged by the fact

Exceptional Half Year Results at JMW

Joy Kingsley and Bill Jones

that it is possible to achieveresults like these, in a marketwhich has been very difficultfor law firms. These excep-tional results show that ourstrategy of providing a fullservice to our clients, entre-preneurial leadership andcontinuing recruitment ofthose who wish to bring theirclients here, has been a verysuccessful one for us.”

Bill Jones, Managing Partnerat JMW said:“JMW has dou-bled its revenue and profitover the last 5 years whichstands out amongst our com-petitors. The Results are acredit to the great team wehave at JMW and we hopeand expect that the firm willcontinue to enjoy the resultsand recognition we are re-ceiving at the moment.”

Slater & Gordon have todayannounced a commitmentof more than half a millionpounds to help fund re-search in to the social andmedical issues that impacttheir clients.

This comes on the same daythat the deal to acquire thehighly regarded asbestos andindustrial disease practiceJohn Pickering and Partners iscompleted.

The newly created Slater &Gordon Social and MedicalResearch Fund will be a not-for-profit research and educa-tional fund established tosupport information sharingamongst healthcare profes-sionals in both the UK andAustralia.

Slater & Gordon have a proudhistory of supporting socialjustice and philanthropiccauses and have donatedmore than half a millionpounds to asbestos and med-ical research in Australia overthe last seven years.

As part of this fund there willbe a provision for financialsupport for on-going effortsto understand and tackle as-bestos-related disease as partof our support for the victims.

There will be a commitmentfrom Slater & Gordon of morethan £565,000 over the nextsix years and there is also thepossibility of further dona-tions of funds from clients.

Neil Kinsella, head of UK atSlater & Gordon, said: “Todayis an important day for us asJohn Pickering and Partnersbecomes part of Slater & Gor-don and to mark this we havedecided to also announce thenews that we will be launch-ing an international fund forresearch in to the social andmedical issues which impactclients of the firm.

“Not only will we be combin-ing our experience and tal-ents to mean that we are inthe best possible position tooffer clients world class legalservices, we will also be in aposition to use the Slater &

Gordon Social and MedicalResearch Fund to support in-formation sharing amongsthealthcare professionals andprovide us with a platform toadvocate for change of behalfof our clients.”

The fund will be managed byan advisory board to be ap-pointed over the next fewmonths and will comprise ofrepresentatives of Slater &Gordon and independentmembers, either drawn fromsocial and medical researchacross the UK and Australia orwith experience in under-standing the needs of clientsand the capability gaps.

For more information regard-ing the completion of the saleof John Pickering and Part-ners to Slater & Gordon or formore details on the Slater &Gordon Social and MedicalResearch Fund please contactAlison Jackson-Carter onajackson-carter@slatergor-don.co.uk or 0207 657 1686 orSamantha BadenSBaden@slatergordon.co.uk0207 657 1682.

Slater & Gordon completes on acquisitionof John Pickering and Partners

Manchester law firm Ae-quitas Legal (Aequitas) haswhite-labelled its in-houseapp, inCase, and decided tomake it available to otherpersonal injury (PI) firms.Managing partner of Ae-quitas, Sucheet Amin de-signed the app to enableclients to keep up to datewith their claims, to passdocuments and photo-graphs to the fee-earnerwith conduct of their claim,and to better understandthe claims process – with-out having to pick up thetelephone, write a letter orsend an email.

Sucheet Amin commented:“We created inCase as our re-search revealed that Ae-quitas' clients wanted us tokeep in touch, but not neces-sarily via the usual methods.inCase plugs the gap be-tween traditional contactsuch as telephone calls, faceto face meetings and letters,and more modern methodssuch as email and text mes-

our clients, and continue doso very regularly, but when itcomes to simple queriesabout progress, many of ourclients prefer the conven-ience of the app.”

inCase is iPhone and Androidcompatible, and is integratedwith Eclipse's case manage-ment software, ProClaim. Theapp is 100% secure with eachclient designated a uniqueuser identity and password.

inCase is compatible with92% of UK smartphones. Theremaining 8% can be serv-iced via a mobile-ready web-site which offers the samecapabilities as the app.

Law firms that implement in-Case receive full technicalsupport, marketing materialsand a bespoke risk assess-ment proforma to guaranteecompatibility with the SRA'sclient care requirements. Thecosts of installing the apprange from £447 - £947.

sages.”

Whilst designed primarily asa means for client and solici-tor to keep in touch and ex-change information, inCasehas also provided an unex-pected benefit to the firm.Sucheet added: “The fixed feeregime limits cost recover-ability, but the SRA's clientcare requirements haven'tchanged, and solicitors arerequired to respond to allclient queries, meaning thatPI firms record a level of anon-recoverable WIP on adaily basis.

“Since rolling out inCase,we've been able to signifi-cantly reduce the number ofqueries we receive each day,which I believe is directly at-tributable to the app's abilityto provide automatic updatesto clients as and when keymilestones in each claim arereached.

“Of course, we are alwaysmore than happy to speak to

Personal injury app inCase hits the market

10 Feature

Getting to know you......

Also this month Sue Leach of Quality SolicitorsAbney Garsden talks to The Messenger...Name: Sue Leach

Job role: Trainee Solicitor (Qualifying June 2014)

Firm: Quality Solicitors Abney Garsden

Area of Practice: Personal Injury (Child Abuse compensation)

If you hadn’t gone into the legal profession, what alternative career would you choose?: I have already had a successful career in the PharmaceuticalIndustry. I trained as a pharmacologist conducting researchinto birth defects before moving into Sales and Marketingwhere I worked closely with the medical profession. I was in-volved with the development of drugs for the treatment ofcancer and heart disease that literally saved lives.

I was fortunate in that redundancy offered the opportunity tochange direction and study law – something I had wanted todo for many years.

I took the leap and began my training 4 years ago and havenot looked back. My current position, acting for the victims ofabuse in childhood, is challenging but extremely fulfilling andconfirms I made the right choice.

Although before I switched to Law I did consider becoming anairline pilot! I learned to fly an airplane many years ago butdue to a lack of the navigation gene, I never passed my li-cence – I kept getting lost!

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the profession today?Even with my relatively short period of time working in theLegal Profession I can see that it is changing at a rapid rate.The Legal Services Act meant that firms have to become morecommercially aware and customer focused which doesn’t sitnaturally with many lawyers. But I think the firms that don’tbecome more business minded will be the ones who suffer.

What work gives you the most satisfaction?The clients I work for are victims of abuse in childhood whohave felt throughout their lives unable to disclose what hap-pened to them as they have felt that they would not be be-lieved. When they disclose to me therefore, it's sometimes thefirst time that they feel anyone has ever listened. It is hard not to become discouraged and cynical abouthuman nature but although I am not their counsellor, I feelprivileged that in some way I am able to support themthrough the legal process

Who inspires you?My father, Albert. Since retiring from the Police many yearsago he has dedicated his spare time to identifying and locat-ing those Police officers from the Manchester Police Forcewho fell in the First World War but who have not been recog-nised on any memorial. He has successfully identified severaland at the age of 81 years, continues to search for others.

Do you have any advice for anyone considering a career inthe law?Be honest with yourself regarding the area of law you want towork in and take your time researching your choice to identifycompanies to apply to.

How do you relax?I sing in a local choir and take singing lessons. I also practiceyoga on a regular basis although I have been known to blastmy motorbike on the occasional racetrack to let off steam!

Is there a book that had an impact on your life?Not exactly an impact on my life but a book that stayed in mymind for weeks after I had read it is Birdsong by SebastianFaulks. Its evocative description of life in the trenches in WorldWar 1 was overwhelming.

Unfortunately I watched the TV adaptation of the book re-cently and it spoilt my memories of it!

Finally, sum up yourself in three wordsAdventurous, compassionate, determined

Name: David Bott

Job role: Senior Partner

Firm: Bott & Co

Area of Practice: ELPL and RTA

If you hadn’t gone into the legal profession, what alterna-tive career would you choose?I had the choice of doing a PhD in Laser Chemistry for threeyears in Sheffield or travelling round the world with the per-son who became my wife, so I chose the latter. When I cameback I retrained to become a lawyer. I like to be social and Ilike wine, so if I wasn’t a lawyer then I would like to run a wineshop or a decent bar. Despite doing a Chemistry degree, if it ismore about what I would like to do, then it’s owning a bar.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the pro-fession today?Surviving. The changes with regards to costs, recoverability,the attitude of the courts with regards to allowing errors topersist or not persist, the attitude of insurers, and the marketconsolidation, all of that is going to make it very hard for firmsover the next five years. So unless you have a very clear strat-egy, you’re going to find that you are going to suffer and po-tentially suffer to the extent that you won’t be able to tradeany more.

What work gives you the most satisfaction?When you get a great result for a client, and that client isgrateful, it is a simple joy to get to that point. Most peopleworking in law want to help people, and when it works right,specifically if something has been denied in the first place,and you’ve done your work and got a settlement, it makesyou feel like it’s worth it. I also enjoy the management and

strategy side of things, but the simplest pleasure is having ahappy client.

Who inspires you?Looking backwards it would be my parents, but looking for-wards, it is my wife and two children. If I was asked who in thelegal community inspires me, I would say anyone who sets uptheir own firm. They are people who think ‘I know how itshould be done’ and they do it; especially now when thingsare turbulent.

Do you have any advice for anyone considering a career inthe law?Do other things first. Probably don’t do a law degree in thefirst instance; instead do a degree for the love of it, and thendo the conversion course as that way you’re likely to be morerounded.

I don’t think there will be many trainee solicitors in the future,so what students can do and what I recommend, is join a lawfirm and go down the CILEx route.

How do you relax?I like to run, cycle and drink. A perfect Sunday afternoon forme would be cooking a roast dinner, sharing a nice bottle ofwine and everyone getting on.

Is there a book that has had an impact on your life?There are two books. The book that I keep coming back to isThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The second book isBeloved by Tony Morrison, it’s so unbelievably well writtenand heart rendering; You can’t help but be affected by it.

Finally, sum up yourself in three words: Determined, energetic, articulate

This month David Bott, Senior Parter at Bott & CoSolicitors talks to The Messenger...

Bromleys are delighted toannounce the appoint-ment of Martine Swinscoeas a Senior Associate tothe Childcare Team.

After a career in retail Mar-tine turned to law and qual-ified in 1998, and now hasover 15 years of experienceof practising within the fieldof childcare. She is wellknown and respected by allof the Guardians and ex-perts in this field and has avery strong reputation as anincisive advocate who issympathetic to the needsand situations of all of herclients.

Martine specialises in workrelating to children, particu-larly care proceedings andcomplex applications forresidence and contact or-ders, representing children,parents, grandparents andother family members.

Of her appointment, Mar-tine says: -“I am delighted tojoin the well-establishedand reputable team atBromleys, which is one ofthe largest teams in GreaterManchester. I have great re-spect for all of the membersof the team and I look for-ward to working with part-ners, Keith Platts andJennifer Davies; and theother members of the care

team; Steve Gwenlan, OliviaBell and Natalie Oakes.These are challenging timesfor childcare lawyers with somany government imposedcuts and the changes tolegal aid recently intro-duced which affect bothclients and lawyers alike,but I know that all of themembers of the Bromleysteam put the needs and re-quirements of their clientsfirst and foremost above allother considerations. Irecognise that the firm isfully committed to support-ing this area of work and Iwelcome the opportunity tocontinue the Bromley phi-losophy to champion theneeds and best interests ofclients and their children ”.

Jennifer Davies, one of thepartners in the ChildcareTeam, says of Martine’s ap-pointment: - “I have knownand respected Martine pro-fessionally for many years.She has always displayedqualities that we at Brom-leys consider to be ex-tremely important –integrity, tenacity, a sympa-thetic approach and com-mitment to providing a highquality service to her clients.I have absolutely no doubtthat Martine will be a valu-able addition to the teamand will strengthen thegood reputation that I be-lieve we have worked hardto attain”.

Bromley’s Childcare Team Expands

MartineSwinscoe

Dr Joshua AdedokunMB BS, DA, FCARCSI, FRCA, FFPMRCA

Chronic Pain ExpertDr Adedokun has extensive clinical experience in the

management of various chronic pain syndromes including persistent, neck, back and neuropathic or complex regional painsyndrome especially following personal or occupational injuries.

He also has wide experience in medical negligence claims.

Listed on the UK Register of Expert Witnesses, an APIL expert, Mem-ber of Society of Expert Witnesses and Expert Witness

Institute.

Dr Adedokun accepts instructions from Claimants, Defendants andas a Single Joint Expert.

He covers Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham and London.

Other locations and domicilliary visits can be arranged.

Contact Person: Jane Griffiths (Medico Legal Manager)Tel: 0161 485 1881/07946 700859

Email: expertpainreports@gmail.comRoom 9, Eden Point, Three Acres Lane, Cheadle Hulme,

Cheshire SK8 6RL

13Feature

City ProfileThis month Julia Baskerville talks to Paul Griffiths DL, the High Sheriff ofGreater Manchester and Chairman of The Monastery...Born and raised in Gorton,Paul Griffiths spent the ma-jority of his career workingin the food industry, until asimple train journey fromLeeds to Manchesterchanged the course of hiscareer, and life.

As a child, Paul had attendedSt Francis School with hisbrothers and sister and hadbeen an Alter Boy at GortonMonastery, a time whichholds many fond memories.Paul married Elaine andmoved away from Gorton,but on a journey to Manches-ter he spotted the Monasteryfrom the train window andwas horrified to see its dilapi-dated state.

On his return home, Paul toldhis wife that he must dosomething about theMonastery and set into mo-tion a very different pathwhich was to take over his life.

Paul and wife Elaine formedThe Monastery of St Francisand Gorton Trust in 1996,with the aim of restoring theMonastery to its former gloryand Elaine gave up her suc-cessful career in marketing sothat she could concentrate onraising funds for the restora-tion.

Built between 1863 and 1872,this great gothic building wasdesigned Edward WelbyPugin and built by the Fran-ciscan Order to serve themainly Irish and Italian

Catholic community of Gor-ton, and almost 100 friarslived within its walls.

The Monastery was built bythe Franciscans themselvesand were assisted by localpeople, and towers six feethigher than York Minster.

However, a slum clearanceprogramme led to a dwin-dling congregation, and achange in the local commu-nity demographic forced theFranciscans to abandon thebuilding in 1989 which theycould no longer afford to run.

Purchased by a property de-veloper, plans were made toconvert the building intoapartments. But the devel-oper went bankrupt and theabandoned building was es-sentially destroyed by pil-lagers and vandals, who tookeverything of any value, in-cluding statues, lead from theroof and some of the stainedglass windows.

Undaunted by this desolationPaul, Elaine and a team of vol-unteers set to raising funds torebuild.

In 1997, the World Monu-ment’s Fund (WMF) based inNew York, produced a list ofthe top 100 buildings in theworld which needed to bepreserved. The list includedthe Taj Mahal, Pompei, theValley of the Kings, MachuPichu, and in at 100 was Gor-ton Monastery. At the time

The Monastery earned thenickname “Manchester’s TajMahal.”

Paul say that this was wonder-ful news and a great motiva-tion to keep the charity WithFinancial assistance from theHeritage Lottery Fund, Archi-tectural Heritage Fund andEuropean Regional Develop-ment Fund, the restorationwork began and is one of thelargest community led regen-eration projects. Restorationinvolved some 300 local peo-ple, 15,000 slate tiles, 125tonnes of lime mortar, 400panes of glass and 20,000 re-claimed bricks. After muchsweat and toil, the work wascompleted in 2007.

That year Elaine Griffiths wasawarded an MBE in theQueen’s Birthday Honours Listfor her services to Heritage.The volunteers have also re-cently been recognised withthe Queen’s Award for Volun-tary Service.

During the period that theMonastery had been aban-doned, twelve statues of Fran-ciscan Saints had been stolen.However, a stroke of luck, orperhaps through some divineintervention, a member of theTrust saw the statues for salein a Sotheby’s catalogue, ad-vertised as garden orna-ments. The Trust, with theassistance of Manchester CityCouncil was able to halt thesale and return the Apostlesto their home.

Similarly, the huge crucifix,

The Saints in the workshop before restoration

The Saints fully restored and back in position, high up in the Great Nave.

weighing in at some 350kg,and 12 feet wide and 17 feethigh which had hung highabove the Altar had also beenstolen. That too had been soldby a dealer to a church inFlorida, but after negotiationsthe Crucifix was purchasedand returned to TheMonastery.

HRH Prince Charles first vis-ited the Monastery in 2007,with the Duchess of Cornwallto offer encouragement tothe project. In 2010, address-ing some 400 guests at a din-ner held in the Great Naveand launching a sustainabilityinitiative, HRH said; "I find thatjust being here lifts my spiritsand makes me feel that any-thing is possible.”

The Monastery, now restored,is a venue for conferences,awards dinners, weddingsand concerts. This ensuresthat this architectural master-piece can be maintained andpreserved for future genera-tions. Paul is Chairman of theMonastery and they continueto fundraise to complete therestoration and conservationof the alters, paint work andworks of art. It is also plannedto build a new front wing andenclose the cloisters onceagain. Having already raisedclose on £7million to restorethe former church and friaryin 2007, the Trust now needsto raise £1million itself to at-tract matched grant fundingof £2million from the Her-itage Lottery Fund.

The purpose of the current

Above & Below: The Cloisters before and after restorationThe Monastery in all its glory

£3million project is to com-plete the conservation anddeliver the community vi-sion.This will allow theMonastery to be OPEN EVERYDAY FOR EVERYONE as an ed-ucational and community re-source as well as venue, andenable them to Share theStory with visitors and guests.

Paul is obviously delightedand rightly proud of the trans-formation of The Monastery.He says “There is still muchwork to be done and moneyto be raised, but this is a beau-tiful building that is a part ofGorton’s heritage and shouldbe preserved for future gen-erations. 100% of our profitsgo to charity so anyone usingthe Monastery as a venueknows that their event is help-ing us to help others in thelocal community.”

Through his work with TheMonastery, The Queen ap-pointed Paul as the HighSheriff for Greater Manches-ter.

The principal formal duties ofHigh Sheriffs include atten-dance at royal visits in theCounty and support for Her

Majesty’s High Court Judgeswhen on Circuit. Paul oftenhosts dinners for High CourtJudges at the Monastery andjust last month welcomed HerMajesty The Queen and HRHThe Duke of Edinburgh to TheMonastery for a private lunch.

The High Sheriff also liaisewith the police and emer-gency services as well as sup-porting and promotingvoluntary organisations.

Paul and Elaine have a 15 yearold daughter Katy and Elainehas two children from her firstmarriage; Heather, 26, worksin Events management inHong Kong and George, 24, aprofessional musician withthe band, Embers.

Paul’s other passion, asidefrom The Monastery is flyinghelicopters, he adds “I wouldfly every day if I could!”

For further information onevents at The Monastery, orto donate to the Angels Ap-peal please call 0161 2233211 for further informa-tion.

www.themonastery.co.uk

Talking HeadsThis month we asked practitioners and a number of Manchester professionals with expertise in business branding and PR “Where does branding sit in the legal market place”

Adam Jupp, Head of Business, Manchester Evening News

I guess the answer to this alldepends on your perspec-tive as the client.

Speaking as an individual,value-for-money, quality ofservice and legal advice arethe three most importantthings to me.

But the question is whetherbranding has an impact onthat. Having recently neededto instruct a solicitor for apersonal matter, I was in-deed searching for all thosethings but my first point ofcall was to put out feelersamong friends and col-leagues to see if they couldrecommend anyone.

What came back was a refer-ral to an individual and firmthat both had a good repu-tation. The brand of the firmwas important but the refer-ral was most important inthat instance.

However, had nobody Iknew been able to make arecommendation, I am al-most certain my choicewould have been influencedby the brand image of thevarious firms in the marketplace.

What is clear, however, isthat brand might be key insecuring work in the firstplace but the basics of goodservice and value-for-moneyare as vital as ever beforefrom that point onwards.

It can take months to win acustomer - with brandingplaying an important role inthat - but it can take secondsto lose one.

In the corporate world, I ex-pect branding takes on anadded significance. So muchof the publicity surroundingtransactions these days in-volves mention of the vari-ous advisers to have beeninvolved.

Knowing this, businessescompleting acquisitions willalmost certainly be thinkingabout the brand values ofthe law firms they appoint toact on their behalf.

One interesting develop-ment of late has been TheCo-operative Group's moveinto legal services. Clearly,the group will have beenhoping the ethical creden-tials of the wider group'sbrand will have been one ofits unique selling points as itmade its foray into the legalmarket.

It will be interesting to seewhether it seeks to re-badgeitself in light of recent devel-opments that many feelhave tarnished the Co-op'sbrand identity.

Nick WrightStrategy DirectorStudio North

Gone are the days where weconsider only our local highstreet law practice, now wehave a huge array of legalfirms screaming for our at-tention across all of themedia channels. So it’s moreimportant than ever forcompanies to stand outfrom the crowd and beheard amongst all of thecompetitive noise.

The legal sector is facinghuge changes that includethe Alternative BusinessStructures (ABSs) model,which now allows non-legalpractice businesses to selllegal services, everyonefrom banks to supermar-kets. The sector is seeingmany mergers and acquisi-tions plus firms beginningto take a fresh look at theirservice offer in order re-focus and strengthen theirposition. One thing is cer-tain; those legal businessesthat invest in creating astrong brand are those whowill prosper during thesetimes of change.

Branding is an essential partof building up the profile ofan organisation. However

it’s often misunderstoodand not used as effectivelyas it could or should be. Abrand is built on two basiclevels: at a broad-reachlevel, through such thingsas marketing communica-tions, advertising, public re-lations etc; and at a personallevel, through the experi-ence the customer haswhen dealing with the firm’semployees. What makes asuccessful brand is whenthese two levels are aligned.The ‘brand promise’ out-lined to the customer in themarketing communicationsmatches the experiencethey receive when dealingwith the organisation.

Like all service companieslegal firms need to adopt abrand-led approach thatboth drives business cultureand delivers a coherent andconsistent marketing mes-sage. This will help posi-tively shape the perceptionof the business, and ulti-mately build loyalty andtrust amongst its customers.

Laura Dunn Creative Director mmadigital

Branding isn’t just your firmname or logo, your brand isyou, it’s what your law firmrepresents.

Law firms with a positivereputation don’t spring topeople’s minds because ofan eye catching logo, it’s thequality of their service thathelps create a quality brand.

But why do law firms needone? The legal services mar-ket is experiencing unprece-dented change, which inturn is driving a greaterfocus on reaching new audi-ences. Only those who caneffectively articulate whatthey’re about will thrive asnew market entrants chal-lenge them.

Who would have thoughtthat even just a few shortyears ago a song from alegal business’s advertisingcampaign would have en-

joyed chart success or solic-itors and barristers wouldhappily cohabit as one en-tity? Not to mention the ar-rival of those truckinglawyers, Eddie Stobart.Whatever next? InterfloraSolicitors, McDonald’s Lawor Carlsberg Barristers...? Iwouldn’t rule anything out.The challenge for any lawfirm is to identify whatmakes your firm differentfrom your competitors andthen to deliver that mes-sage internally and toclients and prospects con-sistently. It will influence theway you promote your firmacross traditional and mod-ern marketing channels,your ongoing client careand your employee behav-iour. It will saturate your firmfrom top to bottom so yourclients know that if yourbrand promises high qualitylegal services, they will re-ceive it no matter how theyaccess your service.

Daniel NolanManaging DirectortheEword

THE word ‘brand’ brings tomind images of logo de-signs, colour schemes andstraplines, with many view-ing the branding process asa purely above-the-line ex-ercise.

Thought, however, shouldalso be given to how yourfirm can establish and lookafter its brand online.

The first requirement is avisible brand – and onething that really boosts visi-bility online is inclusion insearch engine results,specifically those of Google,the predominant searchprovider.

You should aim for total‘ownership’ of your brand insearch results. When some-one searches for your firm,yours should be the firstwebsite at the top of the re-sults (followed by any socialmedia accounts you mayhave).

Making sure your name ap-pears prominently in yourwebsite’s code and contentwill help achieve this. Main-tenance should be a case ofproducing regular contentand acquiring links to itfrom peers and colleagues,so your brand is seen as rel-evant, up-to-date and morevisible.

This doubles as a goodstrategy for protecting yourbrand in organic search re-sults, ensuring no competi-tors or other unwantedwebsites outrank you in theresults.

In the paid search results,you may find other firms oc-casionally advertise againstsearches for your name.Nothing in Google’s termsprevents this, althoughsometimes a polite requestto the other firm will see theads stopped. In any eventu-ality, you can run your ownbrand advert, usually at verylow cost, to make sure it isyour website potentialclients see first.

Dan Gledhill, Director, RMS PR

The legal market has neverbeen so congested andcompetitive as it is today.Many firms are still unclearon how the legal landscapewill look in years ahead andwhere their role will bewithin it.

It is almost inevitable the al-ternative business struc-tures will challenge theexisting guard on price andin order to resist the temp-tation to compete on thisplaying field, which is ahugely risky strategy, it isimperative to develop astrong brand to fight yourcorner.

And by branding I don’t justmean a shiny new logo.Branding is the soul, pulseand heart of your business;

Steve KuncewiczBermansLaw Society Council Member

In keeping with the ideathat business developmentor marketing is somethinglawyers should only dowhen they have a spare unitthat would otherwise bechargeable, it’s easy to writeoff branding as unimpor-tant, an issue that’s best leftto other sectors to whomthe world shouldn’t owe aliving. After all, the personalbrands of many associatesand partners is often seenas “the attractive force thatbrings in custom”. But in thesocial media world, wheremany lawyers’ personalbrands are being developedalongside or independentlyof their firm, to me thebrand of a law firm as an in-dicator of the experienceyou’ll have of working withthem has never been moreimportant.

Slater & Gordon, IrwinMitchell, Quality Solicitorsand Riverview Law certainlysee the importance andworth of their brands andare making inroads intopublic consciousness as aresult of some very effectivecampaigns. Given the in-creasing profile of new ABSentrants into the market forwhom branding is a way oflife, a fragmented customerbase (both corporate andconsumer) will place moreimportance on brand, val-ues and the “feel” of a firm indeciding who to work with.

After all, as important as in-dividual fee earner brandsmay be, surely they shouldbe channelled into the firm’sto ensure that their good-will doesn’t walk out thedoor with them? Law firmbrands are important andvaluable; we just need tolearn how to build and ex-ploit them more effectively.

14 Talking Heads

Recent transactions in the PImarketplace indicate confi-dence amongst acquiringfirms that 'unwanted' PI WIPis a route to increaseturnover, generate cashflow and the making of agood investment. With asignificant number of firmsstruggling, together withthose that have made astrategic decision to shutdown their personal injurydepartments, the pool ofacquirers is growing. Acqui-sition is not for the faint-hearted though, and‘serious’ buyers in the mar-ket are limited. At the heartof it all, there are injuredclients, and the sector mustnot lose sight of that fact.Acquisition is often timesensitive, requiring preci-sion planning and resourc-ing to ensure OFR(outcomes focused regula-tion) is a fundamental partof the process.

The Post Jackson environ-ment has forced many to re-assess whether it makesfinancial sense to continuewith PI work. Whilst forsome the PI retail market isunpalatable, the commer-cial reality is that for somefirms it is the best option forsurvival and whether welike it or not, acquisition isprevalent. The legal sector isnot immune to economicrealities, but this has to beconsidered in the context ofour regulated environment.Fundamentally, it is aboutthe firm making the rightchoice, at the right time,with the right approach andthere is no ‘one size fits all’answer.

There are a variety of rea-sons why a firm might de-cide to offload its WIP. In themost desperate cases, itmay be that it has simplyfailed to secure PII (as wasthe case for Manchester'sTaylor Legal). Alternatively,as appears to have been thecase for Walker Morris re-cently, it is a strategic deci-sion made because of thedifficulty in making PI a suf-ficiently profitable futurework stream.

But whatever the circum-stances, there are some verysimple steps a firm can taketo ensure an OFR processthat secures the best possi-ble price for its caseload,

and avoid disposing of a po-tentially valuable asset at anundervalue.

Transactions of the highestvalue tend to come about ifthe decision to sell has beena strategic one, and usuallyinvolve a well thought outstrategy, with the caseloadhaving been properly pre-pared and packaged forsale. Of course, time to pre-pare for sale isn't a luxurythat all firms have – butthere are some simple andeasy steps that can be takenin preparation for disposal –even in the most distressedsales.

The more detailed the infor-mation available about thecaseload, the more attrac-tive the purchase. Sellingfirms should ensure theyhave a clear matter listingreadily available, with keydata properly recorded andeasily reviewable. Individualfiles should be neat andtidy, recorded chronologi-cally, and reflect the man-agement informationrecorded.

Potential purchasers willwant to carry out detaileddue diligence on the WIP,and disposing firms can pre-pare for this by removingany cases with little or noprospects of success, alongwith dormant files, from theportfolio offered for sale.

The provision of triangula-tion data, historic settle-ment patterns and win/lossratio can also add value.

The type of PI work carriedout will also affect price. Forexample, industrial diseaseor clinical negligence files

managed by a firm with lim-ited expertise or history inthat field increases the riskassociated with purchase(i.e. the risk of professionalindemnity claims). This per-ceived, or often very real,risk will accordingly drivedown the price the seller iswilling to pay.

Distressed sales attractlower prices. Such transac-tions move quickly, and re-quire all parties to engagewithout delay. Buyers needto have funding, legal docu-ments and PII in place at thepoint of completion. Buyerswith the ability to transactat speed may be few and farbetween.

During the course of thenext few months, and look-ing to the Scottish experi-ence by way of example,there will no doubt be an in-crease in M&A activity, withother acquisitive entities en-tering the market as they re-alise the potential for profit.

For PI firms considering adisposal of their WIP book,they may be well advised toapproach the marketsooner rather than later andbe prepared to invest inreadying the asset for sale,and consider the right wayto protect clients throughthe process. Done properly,a detailed preparation for adisposal project should reaprewards by way of a timely,OFR compliant and properlypriced sale.

About Zebra LC

Zebra LC (Zebra) is a law firmmanagement and due dili-gence consultancy. Specialis-ing in the field of personal

Personal injury caseloads: a diamond in the rough?

your values, ethics and wayof doing business.

A brand is never deliveredby one person but by every-one; it is your collective per-sonality and is what setsyou apart.Success will come to thosefirms with a brand whichconveys their differentia-tion, not imitation. Consis-tency, simplicity andrepetition of messages arecrucial.

Successful brands never tryto be all things to all people.As the proverb goes: ‘A manwho chases two rabbitscatches neither.’ Strongbrands talk specifically totheir target market.

You must define and articu-late aspects of your brandso they work consistentlywith each other towardsachieving your businessgoals. No matter how theclient or referrer, supplier orprospect comes into con-tact with the brand, the ex-perience must be the same.A strong brand means youneed never to compete onprice which is a much saferplace to be.

Adele Wilson, Head of Insight and Planning Tangerine PR

A brand lives in the heartsand minds of its audience.It’s the sum of what peopleknow and what they feelabout your firm - rationallyand emotionally. Whether ornot your firm has investedmoney or time in creating abrand, the fact is, you willhave one. And whateverthat brand is, it will have asignificant effect on thequality and the quantity ofwork you get.

Strong brands are increas-ingly crucial to success inour market. The economicclimate has turned us all intosavvy shoppers, more likelyto question our choices andto look for the added value afirm offers. Developing abrand will help the rightkind of clients find you,choose you, stay with youand pay you what you areworth.

So what’s the checklist for astrong brand? How wouldyour firm measure up?Firstly, you need to ensureyou are offering a high qual-ity service. Your target audi-

ence need to be aware ofyou. And you’ll need a dis-tinctive standpoint, some-thing that makes you standout from the crowd. Youshould have a defined per-sonality. And all this needsto be consistently deliveredat every touch point. That’sat every single point of con-tact with your audience, notjust your logo. Your peopleneed to live the brand too.Defining and communicat-ing your brand internally willcreate and maintain a coher-ent and commercially effec-tive culture. This isparticularly crucial at a timeof market consolidationwhen mergers and acquisi-tions are so common.

In a competitive marketplace, you need to take con-trol of your brand andproactively promote it, sothat people know exactlywhy they should give youtheir business.

15Feature

Michael Clavell-Bate,Manchester Senior OfficePartner,Eversheds LLP

As the legal world becomesincreasingly competitive,branding has never beenmore important as a realmeans to differentiate your-self from competitors. Alegal brand is a lot morethan a name and logo; it’s apromise to your clientsabout the identity, qualityand reliability that your firmcan offer. It needs to com-municate what your firm of-fers and more importantly,offer compelling reasons asto why potential clientsmight want to work withyou.

This year marks the 100thanniversary of Evershed &Tomkinson, one of thefounding firms that startedthe legacy which is nowEversheds, a brand whichhas grown to be one of themost recognisable names inthe UK market and indeedthe world. This journey hastaken us from a collection ofregional firms, to a truly in-ternational firm, this yearbeing named as the firm“whose time is worthclients’ money”, having beenvoted the overall leadingfirm for pragmatic commer-cial advice, strategic highquality work and value formoney (Legal Business, in-house counsel survey 2013).

With a number of acquisitive firms capitalising on others' plans to dispose quicklyof their personal injury caseloads, specialist due diligence consultant Zoe Hollandexplains why planning and preparation can help to ensure law firms make the mostof their caseload, and avoid selling their assets at an undervalue.

injury litigation, the businessprovides hands-on strategicassistance to law firms, insur-ers, banks and funders acrossthe UK. Recent projects in-clude WIP valuation for Man-chester-based insolvencypractitioners, FRP Advisoryand Manchester-based lawfirm, Horwich Farrelly.

Zebra provides a range of dif-ferent consultancy serviceswhich include advising lawfirms seeking to offload theirexisting personal injury case-loads, as well as supportingthose with ambitious expan-sion plans. It is also the pre-ferred supplier to some of theUK's leading banks – provid-ing detailed consultancy onlending risk, as well as actingas an independent valuer ofpersonal injury portfoliosduring merger/acquisitionand financing negotiations.

Zoe Holland, managing di-rect of Zebra LC, trained as aclinical negligence lawyer atniche South Manchesterpractice Alexander Harris.She was then promoted tohead of team at that firm,and latterly led a team of fivewithin Irwin Mitchell's hugelysuccessful clinical negligencedepartment; finally becom-ing an independent consult-ant in 2010. She has also heldseveral executive board posi-tions, including for nationallaw firm network, LawNet.

Whilst in private practice Zoewas rated in Legal 500 andChambers UK as highly re-garded for serious injury andclinical negligence.

From defending the Manchester police force in the Pe-terloo Massacre to training the man who would go on toplay C3PO in the Star Wars films, law firm Slater HeelisLLP has packed a lot into the three centuries in which ithas been practicing.

2013 marks 240 years of service for the Manchester basedfirm, which they recently marked with a recreation of theSlotherem Roll lunch, a feast that was traditionally organ-ised by the firm’s trainees for the Partners.

The time-honoured feast ran from 1824-1930, stopped dur-ing the war then started up again in 1973 and has been heldevery year since. Once a year the junior clerks were requiredto provide refreshments for other members of the office in-cluding Madeira wine, macaroons, pigeon pie and cream-cakes. On Friday 8th November Slater Heelis re-created thefeast once more – complete with traditional fare - at their of-fices in Sale, inviting current and former partners and staffincluding (left to right in photograph) 89 year old Bob Curl;a Partner at the firm until 1988; former Partner Jarlath Walsh;Partner and Head of Private Client Chris Partington; Partnerand Head of Commercial Property Will Henson; Partner andHead of Residential Property Edward Michell; ManagingPartner Mike Fox; wife of former Partner Roger Groarke,Bernadette Groarke, Christine Hamlin; Partner and JointHead of Family Mike Hamlin; Nonie Curl.

The origins of Slater Heelis date back to 24th August 1773,when William Fox, son of a tea merchant, was admitted asa solicitor, an event which was followed four months laterby the Boston Tea Party and, three years later by the Amer-ican Declaration of Independence, making Slater Heelisolder than the United States of America!

When William Fox began practicing law, Manchester washome to just 41,000 inhabitants compared to over 500,000in the city centre alone today.

After practicing law for more than 25 years, William Fox leftbehind the profession to become a partner in a bankingfirm, handing over the business to his successors JohnSharpe and William Eccles. In 1819 Manchester experiencedthe terrible Peterloo Massacre, after which the firm acted indefense of the police. James Wroe, then editor of the Man-chester Observer wrote pamphlets entitled "The PeterlooMassacre: A Faithful Narrative of the Events" which sold outnationwide. The government instructed the police andcourts to go after the Manchester Observer, with Fox’s firmacting for the police, and Wroe was arrested and chargedwith producing a seditious publication. As a result the Man-chester Observer was almost continually shutdown fromlate 1819 onwards, finally being replaced by the Manches-ter Guardian, now the Manchester Evening News.

In 1833, when William Fox died, Thomas Slater and StephenHeelis were in place as partners at the new firm and theirnames have remained in the firm’s title ever since. In the fol-lowing years the firm acted for many illustrious Manchesterfamilies including the Earl of Wilton, the Clowes Estate and

From Peterloo to C3POSlater Heelis hosts traditional feast to mark anniversary

the Bridgewater Estates. Other clients during this era re-flected the changing nature of industry and the develop-ment of Manchester itself and included the Mersey andIrwell Navigation Company and the Old Quay Company. Itwas as solicitor to the Liverpool and Manchester RailwayCompany that William Slater attended the opening cere-mony and witnessed the first recorded railway accidentwhen William Hukisson MP unwittingly stepped back ontothe track and was fatally injured by the train.

The firm also acted for many charities and educational insti-tutions including Manchester Grammar School (WilliamSlater and William Fox both attended the school, as didmany of the later staff including current Managing PartnerMike Fox) and Henshaw’s Blind Asylum (now Henshaw’s So-ciety for Blind People) for which the firm drafted ThomasHenshaw’s will in 1807 followed by a final codicil in 1809 andcontinue to fundraise for today.

In the early years the majority of the firm’s work was in con-veyancing but William Slater also became an able Parlia-mentary lawyer, fighting a number of actions that havemade legal history. Rylands-v-Fletcher established the newdoctrine that a land owner owed a strict duty to his neigh-bor to prevent the escape of water accumulated in a reser-voir onto his land.

The chains of conveyancing work also helped to forge thehistory and landscape of Manchester city centre with thesale of ‘valuable buildings in Quay Street’ in 1835, which be-came The Owens College and is now the premises of theCounty Court.

William Slater continued to practice for 65 years and last at-tended the firm’s Princess Street offices on 8th November1889, dying just four days later at the grand age of 93.

Stephen Heelis became a similarly celebrated figure, partic-ularly in Salford where in 1853, without ever having sat inthe Council, he was unanimously elected Alderman andlater Mayor of Salford for two terms. He even turned downa knighthood during his period in office, declining “the prof-fered honour from private considerations” according to hisobituary. He was one of the founders of the Manchester LawSociety, twice serving as President but is perhaps bestknown for his connection with Beatrix Potter who marriedhis relation and fellow William Heelis in 1913.

The memory of Stephen Heelis is kept alive today by themedal which bears his name, which is awarded each year bythe Manchester Law Society for outstanding results in cer-tain portions of the University of Manchester LLB examina-tion.

In 1897 Slater Heelis merged with another Manchester firmWood Williamson & Colley. On 30th December 1896 21 gen-tlemen from the respective firms sat down to a banquet atthe old Albion Hotel on the corner of Piccadilly and OldhamStreet with the menu including such delicacies as Mock Tur-tle soup; Cod and Oyster sauce, Boiled Turkey and Plum Pud-

ding; and on New Year’s Day 1897 the two firms amalga-mated. As the firm grew it also began to change andevolve. Oxbridge began to give way to redbrick candidatesand new offices were also opened in Sale and Handforth.

Women were also beginning to swell the ranks of the firmand records from 1907 show two Lady Clerks, Laura Robin-son and Florence Mary Clarke.

The firm also saw the impact of the two World Wars ofcourse, with a number of solicitors being called up for activeservice. Hugh Colley Irvine, the senior partner, died in 1965having suffered for 50 years from the effects of mustard gasburns received during the First World War and NevilleWilliams, who worked for the firm until his death in 1972,also suffered for 30 years as a result of severe war woundssustained in the Second World War. In more recent yearsSlater Heelis also represented the last IRA defendant to betried in Manchester in 1984 before all IRA trials were movedto London.

Slater Heelis continued to act in landmark legal cases includ-ing the 1932 ‘snail in the bottle’ Donahue-v-Stephensoncase which created the modern concept of negligence inlaw by setting out general principles whereby one personwould owe another person a duty of care. Mrs Donohuedrank a bottle of ginger beer in which she found a deadsnail. She fell ill and sued the ginger beer manufacturer,Stephenson. The House of Lords held that the manufacturer

16 Feature

Thomas Heelis

owed a duty of care to her, which was breached, because itwas reasonably foreseeable that failure to ensure the prod-uct's safety would lead to harm of consumers.

Between 1897 and 1907 the number of partners had grownfrom four to five; the staff had increased from 15 to 34. Todaythe firm has over 80 members of staff, and Slater Heelis hasalso enjoyed the remarkable long-term loyalty of those whohave served it for most (and in some cases all!) of their work-ing lives. Elizabeth Mary Sullivan retired in 1972, havingcompleted 57 years with the firm; Sam Williamson retired in1970 after 25 years as Conveyancing Managing Clerk.

Current partner Mike Hamlin joined in March 1975 andQuality Standards Manager Margaret Fox celebrated 41years in February this year.

The firm has also had a budding film star in its ranks. An-thony Daniels, who went on to play C3PO in the Star Warsfilms, originally trained as a solicitor at Slater Heelis in the1970s before becoming an actor.

In 1999 Slater Heelis Sale merged with Collier Littler bring-ing the two firms together and re-establishing the full serv-ice business that Slater Heelis has had a reputation for since1773. The firm reverted to the Slater Heelis name in Decem-ber 2009, becoming an LLP in 2012.

Today the firm continues to go from strength to strengthand has seen a significant period of growth in the past sixmonths, taking on 14 extra staff with turnover on track to in-crease by the end of 2013.

The firm’s continued success is as a result of a strategic pro-gramme of department expansions, lateral hires and merg-ers including Stephen Locke of Nicholls Locke, Timperleywho joined Slater Heelis LLP as a Partner in July, making thefirm the successor practice of Nicholls Locke, a highly suc-cessful four strong property law firm with a strong and loyalclient portfolio. Other major additions to the Slater HeelisLLP firm this year include corporate lawyer and first femalepresident of the Manchester Law Society Katharine Mellorfrom DWF; Tarran & Co, the city centre personal injury firmand Kate Rayner who joined from Marilyn Stowe Family Law,

17Manchester Law Society Feature

making the Slater Heelis Family team one of the largest inthe region.

Managing Partner Mike Fox began work at Slater Heelis in1977, getting the call for the interview while working a parttime job in the sewers underneath Stockport! Mike said:“We are hugely proud of our heritage and the fact that wecan trace our history back to the 18th century. Our endur-ing success is very much down to the relationships we havewith our clients – both commercial and private individuals- and we value that as much today as we ever have.

The partners who were able to join us recently for theSlotherem Feast, 240th anniversary event, represent anethos that we still have today across the business and we areproud to continue to see the impact of reputation, qualityand treating people well embedded in our culture. Since thevery first days of the firm, and I believe one of the main rea-sons for our longevity is that we’ve always put reputation,standards and our staff before profit making and plan tocontinue to do so for the next three centuries.”

www.slaterheelis.co.uk is a respected and long-establishedfull service law firm based in South Manchester that hasbeen awarded Lexcel, the national Law Society’s law man-agement quality mark, for ten years running. With originsdating back to 1773, Slater Heelis LLP now employs over 80people who offer in-depth legal expertise to commercialand private clients across the fields of employment, prop-erty, corporate and commercial, litigation, family, con-veyancing and wills and trusts. Slater Heelis LLP works witha diverse client base that ranges from sports personalitiesand entrepreneurs, to national PLC's, local government andnot-for profit organisations.

www.slaterheelis.co.uk@slaterheelislaw

19Merger News

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Manchester law firm, Glaisyers Solicitors, has an-nounced that all the partners and staff from lawfirm, Fruhman Davies Livingstones (FDL) havejoined its practice with immediate effect.

Founded nearly 40 years ago and also based in Man-chester, FDL has developed a strong reputation forthe provision of commercial, residential property,private client, employment, company commercialand corporate advice.

FDL’s 26 staff have now joined Glaisyers. PartnersSteven Fruhman and Jonathan Davies, the foundersof Fruhman Davies & Co. have joined Glaisyers asconsultants and, in addition, Malcolm Abel and Mar-tyn Caplan also joined as partners. FDL will nowcease to exist.

Harvey Cohen, previously of FDL joins Glaisyers asjoint managing partner. He explained: “Glaisyers is anexcellent fit for us and joining the two firms is theright thing to do. The two firms have always shareda ‘clients first and always’ philosophy so together, Ibelieve that we will be able to deliver an even betterservice and provide yet more creative and effectivesolutions in all types of commercial matters.

Nick Johnson, joint managing partner at GlaisyersSolicitors added: “This is an exciting move for bothfirms and we are delighted to welcome Harvey andhis colleagues to Glaisyers.

“From the outset it was clear we had a shared visionto provide quality legal solutions to SMEs, individu-als and families across the region. Our new arrivalswill complement and enhance Glaisyers in a numberof key areas such as private client, residential andcommercial property, company commercial and em-ployment – it’s a great opportunity for all of us.”

Initially, former FDL staff will operate as Glaisyers at the ex-isting premises at Blackfriars House in Manchester. During2014, it is expected that staff will eventually be housed to-gether at One St James’ Square.

Nick Johnson concluded: “The legal landscape continues tochange rapidly but we have a clear growth plan. Consolida-tion in the marketplace continues apace and we are alwaysinterested in more firms joining in our success and recruit-ing real talent to help us grow further.

“Our philosophy continues to be that our clients come firstand see us as being big enough to trust and small enoughto care.”

The move comes just six months after Glaisyers split out itslegal services work to form separate firm, WTB Solicitors. Thisnew partnership will see Glaisyers grow to become an 11-partner firm with around 80 staff and is the first step towardachieving a £10m turnover within the next five years. Thefirm celebrates its 40th birthday next year.

Glaisyers joins forces with FruhmanDavies Livingstones

Nick Johnson

Slater Heelis LLP merges withCottrillsOn 1st December Sale based Slater Heelis LLP (www.slaterheelis.co.uk)and city centre practice Cottrills, two of the regions long establishedand most well-known law firms, joined forces.

Cottrills has enjoyed an enviable reputation in the legal community withAnne Irwin acting for a number of high profile national property clients andwith this move recognises the benefits of being able to provide a fuller serv-ice to clients in areas not currently covered by Cottrills, in particular familyand corporate/commercial law. Anne Irwin says: “The name of Slater Heelisstill resounds in the Manchester business community and the opportunityto offer our clients the expertise afforded by Slater’s corporate/commercialteam headed by Partner Geoff Blower and including the highly experiencedPartner Katharine Mellor, renowned as the first female president of the Man-chester Law Society, made this deal one which I did not think we shouldmiss.”

The four partners of Cottrills will all become members of Slater Heelis LLPwith Managing Partner Anne Irwin becoming Managing Partner of the citycentre office of the combined firm; Slater Heelis’ Chris Bishop becomingManaging Partner at Sale and Timperley and Mike Fox moving to SeniorPartner. The recent move takes the total workforce to well over 100.Mike Fox says “Cottrill Stone Lawless has always been a highly respected citycentre practice with a reputation for providing expert advice and excep-tional client service.

They have a first class client base and share our values and ethos. They careabout their clients and colleagues and strive to provide a service second tonone.

To be associated with Cottrills and see the name Slater Heelis reappear inthe city centre makes me extremely proud. I have no doubt that our clientswill benefit from the exceptional talents of Cottrills’ experienced team”

Slater Heelis LLP www.slaterheelis.co.uk is a respected and long-establishedfull service law firm based in South Manchester and Manchester city centrethat has been awarded Lexcel, the national Law Society’s law managementquality mark, for ten years running. With origins dating back to 1773, SlaterHeelis LLP now employs over 100 people who offer in-depth legal expertiseto commercial and private clients across the fields of employment, property,corporate and commercial, litigation, family, conveyancing and wills andtrusts. Slater Heelis LLP works with a diverse client base that ranges fromsports personalities and entrepreneurs, to national PLC's, local governmentand not-for profit organisations.

21News

The recently published Risk Outlook 2013 report bythe Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) presents abalanced view of the UK legal sector’s risk landscape.As I read the report, it became evidently clear that therisks to the regulatory objectives of the SRA; and thosefaced by law firms, are really two sides of the samecoin. Also, that the legal services providers that bettermanage their business risks – in turn also protect theintegrity of the LSA and the SRA’s outcome focussedregulation.

Many of the risks highlighted in the report can unequivo-cally be managed through technology by law firms.

Financial management

Economic conditions are posing financial challenges to lawfirms. Securing finance is proving difficult and so manyfirms are resorting to non-traditional means such as exter-nal funding, business restructuring and complex loans. Therisks of these approaches are much higher making it im-perative for organisations to undertake cash flow forecast-ing in order to prevent a crisis. This becomes even morepertinent now in view of the HMRC’s recent consultationto crack down on the use of LLPs and partnerships for taxavoidance purposes.

Technology such as business management systems pro-vide accounting and financial management processes thatcater to all types of organisational structures and account-ing requirements, offering real-time visibility of the stateof the business and early-warning signs of festering prob-lems – an area that the SRA highlights as a potential risk toits regulatory objectives.

With internationalisation of business taking hold, such sys-tems provide multi-jurisdiction, multi-currency capabilityfor global procurement, cost accounting, control of creditand liabilities, flexible invoicing and risk and profitabilitymanagement. Regional firms today have the distinct ad-vantage of local knowledge, strong relationships and rel-ative size that allows them to be agile and nimble at thesame time. They must leverage this trend.

From a reporting perspective too, especially if private eq-uity funding is involved, law firms need to report in a glob-ally recognised and commercially-accepted manner.Business management systems (already widely used bybusinesses with private equity ownership) provide real-time reporting, insight and business intelligence to enablemanagement to take timely and informed decisions.

Professional indemnity insurance (PII)

Per the report, in 2012-13, 16 per cent of law firms used anunrated provider for PII, up from 9 per cent the year before.This comes as no surprise. One in eight small and mediumsized law firms went out of business in the last year, ac-cording to business recovery specialist Begbies Traynor’sRed Flag Alert research. It is believed that for many, PII mayhave come too late. Those that were able to secure the in-surance in time for 1 October 2013, underwent increasedscrutiny as underwriters looked for assurances on their fu-ture prospects.

Evidence of use of technology systems for efficient run-ning of the business for many PII firms is proof of an effi-ciency-led approach to business operation and many firmsare able to even reduce their insurance premiums.

Commoditisation and price certainty

The report highlights that weak economic conditions arenegatively impacting the demand for legal services and in-creasing competition from alternative business structuresis putting intense pressure on law firms. According to a re-cent estimate, 2,500 law firms are at risk of financial fail-ure in the coming year.

Commoditisation of legal services is taking place. With theunbundling of services, law firms need to offer choices to‘price-aware and savvy’ customers for how they can en-gage with the firm. A key part of this is offering clear cutpricing for every legal sub matter while delivering thehighest quality standards as outlined by the SRA’s out-come focussed legislation.

Business management systems allow law firms to not onlyprice and monitor different types of work, but also provideways in which the charges can be accurately presented tocustomers. For example, invoicing of a group of sub-mat-ters may include a combination of fixed and discountedfees for different elements of the services provided.

This ability is especially important as most law firms nowfollow a hybrid pricing model that combines the tradi-tional hourly structure and new pricing schemes. Inter-nally, these systems provide law firms with visibility of theirsupply chain enabling them to continuously develop cre-ative fee arrangements, adopt innovative approaches toservice delivery and optimise resources.

Commoditisation is also encouraging specialisation andconsolidation in the industry. The Report mentions thatmerger deals grew 25 percent among top 100 UK law firmsin 2012 compared to 2011. Many UK practices are alsomerging with international firms. It must be noted that thismerger trend is not limited to the top 100 firms – size is notthe only major factor in the efficient delivery of legal serv-ices. Regional firms can take advantage of their lower costbase (fixed and variable) that many larger firms cannot.This presents smaller firms with an opportunity to becomehighly specialised players in the delivery of commoditisedlegal services.

Business management systems are inherently config-urable so they can truly consolidate the business processesof merging organisations, as well as easily scale to accom-modate additional volumes of data within the system.They provide operational transparency, visibility of thecash flow position and highlight the organisation’s risk ex-posure.

Anti-money laundering

All firms must comply with the Money Laundering Regu-lation (2007), the report however reveals the potential un-derestimation of risks of non-compliance by firms.Breaching the regulation brings serious sanctions, not justfrom the SRA, but the ‘law’ as well. Adopting specialisedcompliance solutions that are designed to help complywith numerous regulations globally can help with effec-tively mitigating the risk of non-compliance.

Technology facilitates sound business management

Transparency of firms’ operations, protecting consumer in-terest, compliance with regulation and financial controlsare all sound business management principles. Underpin-ning the business with technology puts checks and bal-ances in place to ensure ethical business practices, highstandards of service delivery and regulatory compliance.

The SRA and law firms sharethe same risks Fraser Mayfield, Product Director, LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions

Fraser Mayfield

Management MattersThis column is now into its fifth year and feedback is still good. We would still like to receive observations and ideas for futureissues. Please mail Bill Kirby at billkirby@professionalchoiceconsultancy.com or the publisher Julia Baskerville atj.baskerville@btconnect.com

22 Feature

New Years Resolution

1. There are still so many firms that are struggling to achievecompliance, profit (that good old combination of billing,gross profit and realistic overheads, sensible working capi-tal, cash flow, management information, client satisfactionand business development. We have our ideas, sometimesa strategy and a plan but in this day and age we cannotmanage any without the effective use of IT.

Still key people within the firm like the managing partnersand department heads do their utmost to avoid it and evendiscussing it even with their own IT staff but also with thePMS/CMS suppliers that have sold us licences, taken moneyfor conversions, implementation and training and then con-tinue to take money every year for support AND ENHANCE-MENTS. Too often we do not know what they are and howthe core products or enhancements can help meet our busi-ness needs.

We have to share our business needs and priorities with oursuppliers and demand of them how they can facilitate theresolution. We have to decide and manage the processesand management of our staff but too often the facilitationhas already been bought and it just needs applying.

I was unaware under the Jackson reforms of the significanceof form H and how to effectively complete this. In Novem-ber watching a number of demonstrations I found one ven-dor – Solicitors Own Software (SOS) take the query in itsstride – it is a great question to ask your vendor.

It obviously helps if department heads have bought into theaccountabilities covered last month. So starting with want-ing the best return from IT investment and managementthat owns business performance and the help that IT canbring we should be;

• Encouraging the vendor to understand the business needs– now and going forward

• Make him responsible for advising of systems enhance-ments to aid business priorities

• Make sure you have an account manager that is strong and

capable enough – they often aren’t and we need to makesure through escalation that they are.

•Make sure he develops an interface with IT, Managing Part-ner and Department Heads

• Demand to see the enhancements in the products and beaware of what is coming so you can organise your internalresource to be ready

• Share the strategy to encourage input and impact theirproduct road map

• Encourage regular visits with structured agenda

• The vendor should be regarded as a resource for theachievement of business objectives

Maybe a big ask but I am afraid unavoidable.

2. Conduct an early review of performance against key ele-ments of your strategy and business plan. In particular grossprofit, billing and cash flow. Get department heads to pro-vide a forecast through to the end of the fiscal

3. Conduct a mystery shopper of your own on your ownpractice, for free using a friend or your partner. Especiallyin light of last months exposee on the handling of enquiriesfrom new prospects. You will fundamentally be surprised athow your reception behaves but more worrying is when thecall eventually gets through to a department and what hap-pens after that.

4. Conduct a mystery shopper exercise on you own recep-tion and witness the response that both a casual newprospect receives, or even a client with an appointment es-pecially if the receptionist has to handle telephone calls aswell.

5. Conduct a review of the resilience of your IT and get peo-ple to prove the resilience to you and confirm the speed atwhich you will be back up and running for separately e-mailand case management. 30 fee earners down for 4 days with5 hour a day targets at £200 an hour is an astonishing£120,000 lost fees - indefensible

New Aid for Commercial Property Lawyers

MLS Advantage (buying group) member renowned for itstechnology platform for residential conveyancing hasbrought to market an advanced mapping product for com-mercial property – offering a real alternative to TM andSearchflow.

Paul Coombs Paul pcoombes@etsos.co.uk the new salesand marketing director tells me “the benefits are easier map-ping for larger commercial plots, Land Registry compliantmaps returned for use when a plan is required for first reg-istration, transfer, or long leases, lower overall cost. The tar-gets are the top 200 Commercial firms, smaller commercial

firms, commercial estate agencies and commercial panels.Firms can access a complete range of searches, commercialEPCs and bespoke title insurance through one online sys-tem"

Lawyer Checker in Demand

Since the publicity in the Sunday Times and BBC Radio de-mand for Lawyer Checker has increased significantly. It isavailable direct or through property search platforms thevolume of use is increasing significantly as firms get to gripswith OFR and seek a differentiator against fraud and mis-takes and certainly from causing damage to a client. Ac-counts and entity searches are just £10 – a small price to pay.

There are a significant number of case studies available nowto help the justification. www.lawyerchecker.co.uk

Moneypenny Getting increasing demand

Back to the issue on how well we receive and convert en-quiries, from another MLS Advantage member, BernadetteBennet reports -We are finding that an ever increasing num-ber of law firms are seeking outsourced solutions to supportthe work they do in house and in the 12 months plus sinceextending our service to 24 hours, with Moneypenny Recep-tionists based in Auckland, New Zealand, we have seen aten-fold increase in the numbers of calls received between8pm and 8am with legal firms accounting for more than75% of the total volume.

We have recently had a firm of solicitors with eight branchesthat knew they were missing calls and had feedback thatcallers were frustrated as they were taking too long to an-swer. They had systems in place where calls would overflowto an alternate office but this just shifted the problem assmaller branch lawyers were multi tasking. We now pick upmore than 1,000 calls for them every month. These are callsthat they have struggled to get to and also those taken outof their normal working day as we pick up calls for themfrom 8am to 8pm.

Simple Merger Advice

Towards the end of November when I had to write this col-umn, being an avid reader of visitors books when I arrive atfirms I twice noticec Phil Jepson of Jepson Holt and then re-markably I saw him walking the streets of Manchester. InNovember Phil published a less that 2 minute video withsome real basic advice about mergers and how essential itwas that they should only be considered if they were a con-tributor to the ultimate plan. Well worth consideringwww.jepsonholt.com

Bill Kirby is a director of Professional Choice Consul-tancy offering advice to firms on all things IT fromstrategy, planning, effective use and outsourcingcontinuity and DR. He can be contacted at bil-lkirby@professionalchoiceconsultancy.com

Marketing, Client Experience & CultureThis conference is aimed at Managing & Senior Partners, “rain-makers” and

Senior Business Development ExecutivesTuesday 11th March 2014 – CPD:6 At The Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester

“More than ever law firms face the challenges of becoming businesses to survive and thrive. Clients are King!They are much more discerning and expect much more from a firm. To succeed firms have to define policies and

processes to support new business acquisition, client retention and client development. That alone is not enough and developing the right cultural behaviour amongst all staff is critical.

This conference is designed to address many of the key issues in a pragmatic way so with the right commitmentand desire delegates can make extremely good use of its content in moving their firm forward. We have much

less to fear and much more to gain by getting the process and culture right.

For further information email VictoriaRidge@manchesterlawsociety.org.uk

MYSG NewsThe MYSG has over 1,000 mem-bers and we invite qualified so-licitors up to 10 years PQE(excluding Partners) from inand around Manchester to joinour group. We arrange socialevents for solicitors, networkingevents with other professionalgroups in Manchester includingbankers, accountants and sur-veyors, educational and CPDseminars, and other eventswhich we think will be of interestto our members. Membership isfree and the costs of our eventsare met by sponsors. If youwould like to join the MYSG andyou do not currently receive ouremails, please email us atinfo@mysg.org.uk, or contact usthrough our website,www.mysg.org.uk or via ourFacebook page, "ManchesterLawyers".

The MYSG have had a verybusy Christmas period. TheChristmas mixer which tookplace was a huge success anda big thank you to all who at-tended and in particular oursponsors, Robert Walters whowe are really grateful to forsponsoring this event. Thisevent was held in conjunctionwith MCASS, RBS and RICSwho we really enjoyed work-ing with for events such asthese. The details from theevent will be on the websitesoon so please do visitwww.mysg.org for details ofthis event and forthcomingevents too. The website is cur-rently being updated gener-ally and any input which any

of members have will begreatly appreciated.

The committee have some ex-citing plans for the New Yearwhich lots of interestingevents planned which shouldsuit all of those involved withthe MYSG. If anyone doeshave any suggestions for anyevent going forward, pleasedo approach the MYSG com-mittee.

The MYSG hopes that all of itsmembers have had a wonder-ful Christmas period and agreat New Year and we arelooking forward to seeing youall at an event in 2014!!

23Local News

MTSG NewsHappy New Year Manchesterlawyers!

Following on from theground breaking Winter Ballat The Monastery, we wouldlike to say a massive thankyou to our ardent supportersand headline sponsors BCLLegal Recruitment, as well asDeans Court Chambers, Ex-press Solicitors, BerrymansLace Mawer, Wesleyan forLawyers and University ofLaw. Without your support,the event would not havebeen possible and it truly wasenjoyed by all. Warmestthanks in particular to DavidJoseph, Manchester Law Soci-ety President, who was theguest of honour in what washis first official engagementas President. Best of luck forthe year ahead David.

And now I could address theelephant in the room; thespare tyre which has emergedaround all of our waists, theNew Year’s resolutions whichare already waning, but in-

stead let’s look forward to theyear’s MTSG events startingwith the depression bustingJanuary Blues Social! All de-tails of the event will be onour websitewww.mtsg.org.uk.

See below for pictures fromour FELT ice skating eventsponsored by Anakin Seal.Adam even found an actualAnakin Seal to ride aroundthe ice, thanks to Shoosmithstrainee Lizzie!

We also have the annual BCLLegal Recruitment careerstalks in February so memberscan start to think about theirnext seats and next steps. Lastyear was certainly tricky forjunior legal professionals inManchester, with the Pan-none acquisition being the

most significant period of un-certainty for all concerned. Asalways, members are encour-aged to contact the MTSG forany help or support.

Finally, we wish you all a pros-perous New Year!

Raana AfsarpourExpress SolicitorsChair 2013/2014

The Manchester Trainee Solici-tors Group provides social, ed-ucational, sporting andnetworking opportunities forjunior legal professionals inand around Manchester. If youwould like to join us as a para-legal, prospective trainee,trainee or newly qualified solic-itor, please visit the ‘join us’ sec-tion of our websitewww.mtsg.org.uk.

Halsey v Milton Keynes NHS Trust

PGF II SA v OMFS Company 1 Limited

Mitchell v News Group Newspapers

You will all have read these cases, or comments about them and will have noticed, in relation to“OMFS” and “Mitchell” the thread noting the Courts’ clear message regarding observance andenforcement of CPR , and, in relation to all three, the common thread of references to ADR andmediation. There is little doubt that courts are focused on the implementation of the “Jackson”reforms.

You may also have read over the recent months in this journal, the views and experiences ofthe mediators of North West Mediation Solutions (NWMS). They all have experiences in life,their professions, and from the many mediations they have carried out. They can bring this ex-perience to bear when working with the parties and their lawyers to facilitate an agreement.This experience has also led to an understanding that they need to work with lawyers to delivera form of dispute resolution which is efficient, effective and successful in reducing the risks oflitigation.

Please meet the members of the NWMS “team” below:-

Roger Broady Roger is a solicitor with more than 35 years’ experience in, wills and inheritance,commercial contracts, shareholder / partnership disputes, professional negligence,and neighbours and their boundary disputes. He has held the position of seniorpartner at firm of solicitors in Kendal since 1989. He became an Accredited Me-diator in 2009.

John Hewison John is a solicitor with more than 35 years’ experience, specialising in company andcommercial law, including corporate governance, charities and sports law. He hasheld the position of managing partner and is currently a consultant partner at oneof Manchester’s leading firms. He became a CEDR Accredited Mediator, a Mem-ber of the CEDR Panel of Mediators in 2002, and on the CEDR Solve panel also.

Jeff LewisJeff is a solicitor with more than 15 years’ experience. He specialises in commercialcontract disputes and warranty claims (with particular experience in the sportingand financial sectors), professional negligence claims, Inheritance Act claims andproperty litigation (including commercial landlord and tenant disputes) within oneof the North West’s leading firms. He was appointed as a deputy district judge in2001 and became a CEDR accredited mediator and a member of the CEDR Panelof Mediators in 2000.

Peter VindenPeter is the managing director of The Vinden Partnership, a firm of chartered quan-tity surveyors specialising in the provision of quantity surveying, project manage-ment and dispute resolution services. He is a highly experienced mediator, havingmediated in the fields of professional negligence, engineering, finance, land andall aspects of the construction industry. He has recently been accredited by ADRGroup as a workplace mediator. Peter has conducted in excess of 90 mediations inthe UK with an extremely high rate of party settlement, including multi-party andmulti-issue disputes, since his registration in 2001.

Tim WallisTim is a solicitor with more than 25 years of experience in many areas of the law,including commercial litigation, but particularly in the personal injury and insur-ance field, both for claimants (initially) and defendants (latterly). He has held thepositions of senior partner and chairman of one of the North East’s leading firms,working from its North West office. He trained as a mediator with the ADR Groupand has been conducting mediations since 1994. He currently chairs the ADR com-mittee of the Civil Justice Council and the Claims Portal Ltd.

Mark WhittellMark is a solicitor with more than 25 years of experience, specialising in banking,insolvency, professional negligence, partnership matters (all professions) and In-heritance Act claims. He is currently a Litigation Partner in a boutique corporatelaw firm with offices in Manchester and London. He is a CEDR accredited mediatorand a member of the CEDR Panel of Mediators. He has an accreditation as a work-place mediator and has recently added an accreditation as a matrimonial media-tor.

To assist with all your enquiries and the administration of enquiry and sub-sequent mediation is

Peter WhitmanPeter has over 40 years experience in legal administration both in the Courts andBarristers’ Chambers both in Preston, and between 1991 and 2005 at 8 King StreetChambers in Manchester. He maintains his links with all areas of the profession inthe north west through membership of the Manchester Claims Association, cur-rently being it’s Chairman. His membership of the Federation of Small Businessesensures that he is in contact with the “business world”. Most importantly Peter isfocused on making the mediation process as stress-free as possible, and his ex-perience in the legal sector ensure the highest standards of administration andclient care.Peter can be contacted via e-mail to peterwhitman@nwmediationsolutions.co.uk, via the website www.nwmediationsolutions.co.uk, via telephone on 01254 720278 or 07774 694964.

……………….facilitating agreement

24 Feature

There has been much debate recently about Scottish independence andI’m sure many of you will barely have given it a second glance, on thegrounds it doesn't really relate to us.

However, there is one element of the issue that could have a rather un-welcome knock-on effect on these parts.

In its Independence White Paper, the SNP has pledged to get rid of AirPassenger Duty in Scotland.

For those of you who are blissfully unaware of this tax, it is imposed bythe government and added by airlines to ticket prices for all flights tak-ing off in the UK.

You probably didn’t realise the cost of your flight included this levy. Putanother way, you probably didn’t realise how cheap your flight couldhave been if it wasn’t imposed.

When APD was first introduced in 1994, the tax was just £5 for short haulflights and £10 for long haul but now, as much as £188 can be added to along haul ticket.

A group of more than 250 chief executives recently wrote to the chancel-lor, urging him to axe the tax, saying the UK would actually end up being£16bn better off on the grounds airlines would be more likely to launchnew routes from our airports if it didn’t exist.

Manchester Airport has revealed at least one carrier has chosen to set upa flight service from a European hub, instead of here, in a bid to dodge

This month Adam Jupp, Head of Business, continues hisseries of articles...

the duty. Airport chiefs also argue regional hubs like Manchester are hitharder by such taxes than London gateways and have pushed the govern-ment to bring in an “APD holiday” on new long-haul services until they areestablished.

Based on all the above, there will no doubt be fears that the abolition ofAPD in Scotland could be damaging to Manchester and other regional air-ports.

The logic is that an airline looking to launch a new flight service could beswayed towards picking an airport where they don’t have to add anythingfrom £13 to £188 to every ticket they sell.

Cheaper tickets means more people will buy them, which in turn meansmore planes will be full, which in turn means the route becomes profitablea lot quicker.

It would clearly be bad news for Manchester if we lost out on yet more newroutes as a result of this development.

It is worth pointing out Holland once had a similar tax to APD but scrappedit once it realised the damage being done to Amsterdam’s main airport.With so much emphasis being placed on overseas trade, airport bosses sayDowning Street should be introducing policies that help the aviation in-dustry, not hinder it, but George Osborne won’t budge.

One final point, you can lodge a claim to claw back the APD paid on aticket if you end up not flying for whatever reason.

Partners Salons are also situated in Poynton and Knutsford

www.partnerssalons.co.uk

£20 blow dry bar available every day withany available stylist please call 0161 425

5206 to book

0161 425 5206We are located on the 2nd Floor, House of Fraser,

Deansgate, Manchester M3 2QG

Spa in the City

Partners Salon is situated on the second floor of House ofFraser, this hidden gem offers everything from hair, nails,waxing and a huge array of beauty treatments, thismonth we are focusing on Germaine de Capuccini the topEuropean skin care house whose premium products arefound in the most exclusive Salons and Spas across theworld.

If you are looking for pure indulgence and total relaxation, we can provide you with a haven where youwill find the most incredible unique sensations, where thebody, mind & spirit converge to feel an unforgettable anddeeply pleasurable experience.

We also retail all Germaine Facial Products and, of course,perfect for presents their divine bath oil and candles,prices from £28 upwards

For further information or to make your bookingplease call Partners on 0161 425 5206

Partners Hair Salons are also situated in Knutsford01565 651819 and Poynton 01625 873112

Partners are offering a 25% discount to readers of the Messenger. Please quote the reference“Manchester Law Society” when making a booking.

25Local News

DATE: Monday, 20th January, 2014 TIME: 6.00 pm for 6.30 pmVENUE: Mr Coopers House & Garden by Simon Rogan, Midland Hotel,

Peter Street, Manchester, M2 5WQCOST: £40.00 + vat @ 20% per ticket – including a welcome drink,

three course meal, coffee and a half bottle of wine (total£48.00)

We are delighted to announce that the next venue for our Manchester Professionals’Dinner Club is ‘Mr Coopers House & Garden’, bought to us by Simon Rogan. Namedafter Mr Cooper whose house, dating back to the 1800’s, stood on the groundwhere The Midland Hotel is built and who opened up his gardens to the public fromwhere he sold vegetables to the people of Manchester Simon Rogan and his teambelieve in good food, cooked with flair and imagination, served in unique surround-ings by a friendly yet professional team.

They aim to be technically perfect with the minimum fuss. Gutsy yet elegant. Butmostly, open to all and often! Their diverse and flexible menu changes with the sea-sons meaning you can visit them time and time again and still discover somethingnew!

This is an informal inter-professional social networking event and we hope that itwill be an opportunity for:

- You to mix and network for both business and social purposes;

- Provide a social platform to build professional networks;

- Get to know other business practitioners facing the same issues in practice and discuss matters relevant to your business with likeminded people;

- Meet people from other professions and practices which may result in cross referral of work;

- Enjoy a superb menu and have a fantastic evening with old and new friends!

Manchester Professionals’ Dinner ClubMENU

Glass of Champagne on arrival

STARTERS

Mexican gazpacho, wasabi and avocadoNick’s meatballs with hyssop, baked apricots and tzatziki

Stichelton, red cabbage coleslaw, mustard and salted walnut

MAINS

Chipotle polenta, hot smoked salmon, leeks and parsley coulis

Pork chop and sage crust with green beans in creamy tofuRoasted teriyaki tofu steak with glazed chill greens and garlic

DESSERTS

Caramel tart with mascarpone ice creamTurkish delight syllabub and honey flapjacks

White chocolate cake with pineapple-cardamom compote

FILTER COFFEE/TEA

Half bottle of wine or soft drinks to the equivalent per person

To make a booking please contact Mrs. Victoria Ridge,

Manchester Law Society, 64 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BN. DX 14378 Manchester .

Tel: 0161 831 7337 or e-mail: VictoriaRidge@manchesterlawsociety.org.uk

The MonasteryManchester’s magnificent Monastery is Pugin’s architectural masterpiece. It sits alongside the Taj Mahaland the ancient ruins of Pompeii as having been listed in the 100 most endangered sites in the world, with arich heritage that should never be lost.

Following a £6.5 million restoration scheme, this hidden treasure has taken its place as one of the UK’smost inspiring venues for any corporate, social or cultural occasions. The Monastery won the UK’s mostunique venue award in 2012 & 2013 for its amazing creative space. It leads the way in hosting a variety ofbanqueting events such as awards ceremonies, Gala dinners, graduation balls and weddings.Along with theGreat Nave there are 7 atmospheric Friary Rooms which are light and spacious, providing exceptional meet-ing, training and seminar spaces, giving conference space from 6 boardroom to 650 theatre style.

The team at the Monastery strive to exceed expectation, from initial enquiry stage to the seamless runningof your event.

For further information onevents at The Monastery,please call 0161 223 3211

events@themonastery.co.ukwww.themonastery.co.uk

28 Lifestyle

three sixtyº 30 Day Challenge - Do You Want to Look, Feel and Perform Better in Just 30 Days forFREE?

To register now and gain free, immediate access, all you need to do is go to http://threesixtypersonaltraining.co.uk/30-day-challenge/Our three sixtyº 30 Day Challenge is simple, devastatingly effective, and, best of all, it’s free. Justsign up by following the link above, and you’ll gain immediate access to all the practical sup-port you need to start changing the way you look, feel and perform today.Sound too good to be true? It’s not. We’re giving away some of our most prized strategies in asimple, easy to use and highly effective online package.What could be better than that? We’ll even come and deliver our 30 Day Challenge presenta-tion to your workforce for FREE in order to get your New Year off to the very best start! Just con-tact us using the details below!

How can the three sixtyº 30 Day Challenge help?

What can you achieve?

• Feel happier• Weight loss – up to a stone (6kg)

in 30 days• Look great and feel confident• Increased energy and vitality• Enhanced performance at work• Fewer aches and pains• More confidence throughout life • Reduced risk of chronic health

issues• Better digestive function – less

bloating and discomfort• Improved mood

How the 30 Day Challenge helps

• Approaches to bulletproof your mental approach for success

• Lifestyle factors that are ruining your life, with practical strategies to address them

• Truth about successful nutrition by three sixtyº Nutritional Therapy with detailed diet plans,menu plans and much more

• Tools to help you measure and track your progress effectively, so your success is objectively quantifiable

• Access to 9 workout plans you can do at home or in the gym and advice on choosing the right plan for you

• A daily email directly to your inbox for the duration ofyour challenge, helping you to stay motivated, organised, and on track

All you need to do to start right now is go to http://threesixtypersonaltraining.co.uk/30-day-challenge/ sign up, and you’ll gain immediate access to your 30 Day Challenge.

Happy New Year! To your new lean and healthy body,

Matt

three sixtyº Personal Training is based on Bridge St and is a bespoke, private personal traininggym dedicated to taking care of Manchester’s busy professionals.

For more information visit www.threesixtypersonaltraining.co.uk, call Matt on 07971 192357, oremail matt@360personaltraining.co.uk

Manchester Law Society Members receive a 10% discount on personal training upon produc-tion of their Benefits of Membership Card

Monthly Competition

To win a 2 course meal for 2 with a bottle house wine answer the following question

To enter simply answer the following question; What nation’s food does Cafe Istanbulserve?and send to FranEccles-Bech@manchesterlawsociety.org.uk no later than 16th January2014. The winner of the Miltons competition was Frances Jackson, NW Law Limited

Café Istanbul is Manchester'slongest established quality Turkishrestaurant. Whether you're a famil-iar face or a new guest, we're pos-itive you'll find somethingdifferent and exciting on ourmenu. Whatever your taste, you'llfind it catered for, from the widestchoice of hot and cold starters toexotic dishes, all prepared in thetraditional Turkish style.

On our menu, you'll find lamb andchicken, freshest fish and mixedfeasts for the heartiest of ap-petites. We also offer a wide selec-tion of vegetarian and saladdishes and one of Manchester'smost extensive wine lists. If you'dlike to see for yourself, you'll find aselection of our menus onlinehere.

So, be sure to visit Café Istanbulsoon: come and enjoy the food,enjoy the famously friendly at-mosphere, and enjoy an authenticTurkish dining experience.

The W according to Fran

rld 29Lifestyle

I have to confess that I STILLhaven’t got back into theswing of things on thegym/diet front. I keep ontelling Matt (personaltrainer SLASH master tor-turer extraordinaire) that Iwill start back again in Janu-ary – New Year, New Me andall that ..............

It is proving very difficult tokeep out of his way as thegym is in the basement ofour building and I keep onbumping into him whilstbrining back bacon buttiesand other contraband intothe building! It’s like beingback at school and trying tohide the fact that you aredoing something naughtyfrom the teachers! (I wouldguess................!)

People are walking into the

building wondering whythe Chief Executive of Man-chester Law Society is lean-ing against the wall with herfoot upon it behind herback, looking decidedlyfurtive, talking to Matt. It’sbecause she has lodged hermillionaire shortbread onthe said leg, behind herback to hide it from him andis trying to talk noncha-lantly, hoping the saidshortbread doesn’t fall offand she isn’t BUSTED!!

By the time “he” reads this (Iam writing it on the 3rd De-cember for the January edi-tion) I will be back in thegym, training hard and eat-ing grass and dust again, sohe won’t be able to tell meoff too much! Sorry Matt xAnyway back in the weirdand wonderful world of

Jacko, he has REALLY sur-passed himself this time.On the 30th November heasked me when I was goingto shave as it was the end ofMovember - he is SO notfunny (but I did have to goto the bathroom mirror justto check that I wasn’t sport-ing any sort of moustache!)I know what is going to hap-pen now, anytime any ofyou meet me you are goingto look straight at my upperlip!

As you know he is nowworking in the Hilton Hotelon Deansgate in ThePodium restaurant. He hasmade quite a few friendswhich is good, most ofwhom are Italian and, muchto his embarrassment, actu-ally know me as they usedto work at San Carlo, which

Jack has actually taught mea good lesson and as theysay, out of the mouths ofbabes..........

He came home from workone night and said he hadbeen waiting on at thelunch for a conference(imagine my shock that hehad actually uttered a fullsentence to me. I knew thatit would be, from his pointof view, something impor-tant as normally all I getfrom him is either “yo”(whatever that means),“yeah, got it” (when I haveasked him to do somethingand he hasn’t really listenedbut needs to give some sortof answer to fob me off ) or“in a sec” (when I ask him todo the same something thathe has answered “yeah, gotit” for the 47th time).

He asked me why peoplewere so rude and impolite.(or words to that effect).Apparently he was goingaround the delegates serv-ing sandwiches and plattersof hot bites and most of thepeople didn’t even look athim, let alone say thank you.(I hasten to add it wasn’t aManchester Law Societyconference as I know mymembers wouldn’t be thatrude!). He said he felt quiteangry, not to mention in-significant and it quiteupset him.

I said that probably theywere really busy people anddidn’t get to see their peersthat much and were taking

is, as people who know mewell will know is my VERYfavourite place. (Obviously Idid due diligence on themall – well they are older thanhim – and asked the boys inSan Carlo if they were nice,good boys, which got backto Jack – the San Carlo boystold the Hilton boys andthey told Jack, much to hisdisgust!) Anyway the Italianboys asked Jack if he wouldlike to play five a side foot-ball with them. He was de-lighted and off he went, allexcited with himself. Appar-ently they had to get a tramto the venue. Neither he,nor the Italians, had beenon a tram before andthought they could buy aticket on the tram.Wouldn’t you just know itan inspector got on. Heasked them for their ticketswhich they obviously didn’thave.

The Italians said they werefrom Italy and hadn’t beenon a tram before and thevery kind Inspector mansaid he would let them offand let them buy a ticketfrom him. Jack didn’t knowwhat on earth to do andwas getting a bit worried.The Inspector man thensaid “and what about yousonny?” pointing to Jack.(well he is 6ft 2” with mousyhair and looks so very Eng-lish!) He said “me too, I fromItalia, eccoli, grazie mille’ inhis very best Italian accent.He was allowed to pay forhis ticket on the tram andhas learned a good lesson.

the chance to catch up (try-ing to make him feel better).He said that that really did-n’t matter as manners costnothing and surely peoplewho were obviously in goodjobs and supposedly intelli-gent should know better.Good point, well made Jack– just in case he reads this!

So remember next time youtake your curled up butty orsoggy vol au vent from yourwaiter or waitress at a con-ference a quick smile orword of thanks would prob-ably make their day.

And here is a photo of Jackso that if you should hap-pen to go to the Hilton and he serves you, you can saythanks, obviously in an overthe top Italian accent to him(or commiserate with himabout his parentage!!!!)

Fran Eccles-BechChief Executive

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Contact us....THE MANCHESTER LAW SOCIETY64 Bridge Street, Manchester M3 3BNTel: 0161 831 7337 Fax: 0161 839 2631www.manchesterlawsociety.org.ukEditor: Fran Eccles-BechE-mail: FranEccles-Bech@manchesterlawsociety.org.uk

Publisher: Julia Baskerville Publications25 Southworth Way, College Farm, Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire FY5 2WWTel/Fax: 01253 829431 E-mail: j.baskerville@btconnect.com

Advertising enquiresj.baskerville@btconnect.comwww.baskerville-publications.co.uu

All rights reserved, reproduction in whole or part without written permission from the Publisher and Manches-ter Law Society is not permitted. Photographic material and manuscripts are supplied at owners risk, neither thecompany not its agents accept any liability for loss or damage.

The Society welcomes articles and letters from members on any topic and items should be sent to the above ad-dress

The views and opinions expressed in the Manchester Messenger are those of the individual contributors and notof the Manchester Law Society

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