Partner Article

Small law firm grows bigger by being better

Independent law firm Shaw and Co Solicitors is bucking the industry’s gloomy trend of closures and job losses by expanding its business and taking on new staff.

The company is not only surviving the massive upheavals which have rocked the personal injury sector this year, it is thriving.

As a result it has engaged two new legal assistants to help its stable of solicitors and legal executives handle the workload from its offices in Newcastle upon Tyne and Doncaster.

Just six months ago, industry experts were predicting that changes in the way personal injury claims can be made or paid for would lead to as many as 100,000 redundancies. Some parts of the UK are said to have seen up to a fifth of weaker firms go to the wall. Legal staff - and non-legal employees such as secretaries or admin assistants - have found themselves out of a job as firms either fold, merge or set up the new alternative business structures.

However, the changes have had minimal impact at Shaw’s because the company has built up a unique pool of expertise by concentrating on specialised areas of personal injury claims.

“We don’t chase ambulances and we generally don’t go in for the high volume, quick turnover cases that are the meat and drink of the big firms,” said director Chris Shaw.

“We have always concentrated on what we do best - core areas of specialist work - and this has become a solid foundation on which we can build.”

He added: “Unlike the vast majority of personal injury claims, many of the cases we take on are complex.

“Without solicitors like us who specialise and have the background and expertise needed, people who suffer serious, debilitating accidents through no fault of their own would find it harder to claim compensation.”

Established in 1997, the firm has a dozen staff on Tyneside, and five more in Doncaster. Within the personal injury field its specialist areas include equine law, dog attacks, asbestos claims, agricultural accidents and the rapidly emerging specialism of personal injury in the armed forces.

The experience and legal expertise of staff is reinforced by the fact that many have a personal interest in their relevant areas of activity.

Mary Ann Charles, the firm’s equine specialist, rides and breeds horses, is a judge of Cleveland Bays, an Assistant District Commissioner for The Pony Club, and founder of the professional group Equine Lawyers UK.

When dealing with personal claims for military personnel, Simon Jackson brings insight gained by being a captain in a Territorial Army unit of the Royal Artillery.

Even the new recruits take a keen interest in some of the specialist fields. Legal assistant Jade Thompson joined the firm after completing her degree in history and religious studies (at Leeds and a spell as a youth and community support worker with the National Trust. Outside of work, Jade, 25, from Morpeth, Northumberland, is a competitive horsewoman and has taken part in the Horse of the Year Show.

Twenty-one-year-old Amie Flynn, from Newcastle, is the other new starter- but she has been a familiar face at Shaw’s for several years, after first visiting to do work experience from school in 2006 and part time summer work while studying sociology at Northumbria University.

Shaw and Co Solicitors’ head office is at Three Indian Kings House, 21 The Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by MarxMedia .