Our History
We are a leading regional commercial law firm. Our origins go back to the late nineteenth century. Historically the firm acted principally for local landed estates and proprietorial businesses, particularly in the ceramics industry, many of which remain clients today though in diversified ownership. The nature of this work, particularly within the Staffordshire area, led to the firm developing specialist expertise in relation to the ceramics industry and areas such as mines and minerals, intellectual property and coal mining subsidence.

Since the late 1960’s the size and range of services we are able to offer has increased substantially. Today we are able to provide the full range of specialist and general commercial advice.

Our clients
Our clients range from small to medium sized private companies and owner managed businesses to public companies and subsidiaries of multinationals. We also act as co-advisors to several national and international corporations.

Our clients’ activities are wide ranging and varied. They include manufacturing, distribution, retailing, property development (including housing associations), banks, venture capitalists, trade associations, media and entertainment.

Our approach
We adopt a proactive and down to earth approach to our work. We recognise that clients rightly demand high levels of technical expertise and strength in depth from their lawyers both of which we provide. Our lawyers are both approachable and responsive.

Our people
We employ a wide variety of legal and support staff to provide a full and effective service to all our clients. All our legal staff are trained in particular disciplines and specialists in their own fields. However, all our professional training and development programmes (both internal and external) are designed to ensure that these specialisms are developed in recognition of the wider context in which our clients’ businesses operate. We aim to provide business led specialisms rather than specialisms in isolation. Considerable emphasis is placed within the firm on developing a thorough understanding of clients' businesses, their objectives and legal requirements.

Our offices
We aim to provide our clients and staff with a modern professional office environment. We occupy the majority of Churchill House as head lessee. The site is self-contained with dedicated parking for 150 vehicles.

With modern communication systems we believe we can service our clients’ requirements from a one office centre and are committed to remaining a single site office.

Our switchboard is staffed 12 hours a day from 8.30am to 8.30pm Monday to Thursday and 6.00 pm on Friday (except bank holidays).

Training and Development
We hold a number of training and development courses each year for clients in addition to providing tailored seminars in-house where required.

Practice structure
We divide our professional work into the following operating areas:-

Corporate, Commercial and Employment
Property and Planning
Dispute Resolution
Private Client / Charities

Some of these areas also include other smaller practice groups.

Quality assurance
We hold accreditation for both Investors in People and Lexcel (The Law Society's Practice Management Standards).

Other services
For clients who routinely instruct us on a variety of matters we provide regular written updates (monthly, quarterly or half yearly) free of charge which summarise the current position on all matters currently being undertaken. These updates provide clients with a quick overview of the progress of their matters.

We also publish regular newsletters to keep clients updated on recent developments in the law as well as a wide variety of materials on specific legal topics.