Weightmans

Last updated
Weightmans
Weightmans Logo.svg
Headquarters 100 Old Hall Street, Liverpool, United Kingdom
No. of offices9 [1]
No. of employees1,400+ [2]
Major practice areasCommercial law
Construction law
Conveyancing
Corporate law
Data protection law
Employment law
Family law
Insurance law
Real estate law
Regulatory law
Wealth management
Wills, trusts and estates
Will, trust and estate disputes
Key peopleJohn Schorah (Managing Partner)
Peter Wake (Senior Partner)
Revenue£125.9 million (2022/23) [3]
Date founded1827 (1827) (Liverpool)
FounderWilliam Arthur Weightman
Company type Limited liability partnership
Website weightmans.com

Weightmans is a top 40 UK law firm with nine offices, employing more than 1,400 people, [4] including more than 225 partners. [5]

Contents

The firm offers a range of legal services to public organisations, private companies and individuals. [1] In the financial year ending April 2023, its turnover was £125.9 million. [3]

History

Weightmans can trace its roots back to 1827 when the firm Rutherfords was established in Liverpool. [6] The firm Field and Weightman was established in 1875. [6] In 1887 the firm Weightman Peddar and Weightman was established, becoming known as Weightmans Peddar in 1913 before changing its name to Weightmans in 1970. [6] In 1988 Weightmans and Rutherfords merged to create Weightman Rutherfords and remained known by this name until 1996 when the firm changed its name back to Weightmans and opened a Birmingham office. [6]

In 2002, Weightmans merged with a team from the firm Vizard Oldham and became known as Weightman Vizards – with offices in Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool, London and Manchester. [6] In 2004, the firm again changed its name back to Weightmans before acquiring LLP status in 2007. [6] In 2011 the firm acquired offices in Dartford (through the acquisition of the Insurance practice of Vizards Wyeth) and Knutsford (through a merger with Mace & Jones). [6]

In 2013, Weightmans further expanded its national reach through the acquisition of the Manchester team of Semple Fraser and opened a Glasgow office. [6]

In July 2015, Weightmans merged with Ford & Warren solicitors, acquiring a Leeds office. [6]

In October 2019, Weightmans acquired the practice of Newcastle-headquartered firm, Watson Burton, adding a Newcastle office. [6]

In June 2022, Weightmans and RadcliffesLeBrasseur completed a merger. Through the merger, Weightmans acquired an office in Cardiff. [6]

In September 2023, Weightmans acquired Pierre Thomas Law, a specialist provider of legal advice on international insurance claims. [7]

Clients

The firm's clients include insurance companies, healthcare practitioners and organisations, local government bodies, UK PLCs, multinational companies, education establishments, private individuals, SMEs and owner managed businesses. [1]

Offices

Weightmans is headquartered in Liverpool's commercial district and has offices in eight other cities throughout the United Kingdom: Birmingham, [8] Cardiff, [9] Glasgow, [10] Leeds, [11] Leicester, [12] London, [13] Manchester [14] and Newcastle. [15]

Controversies

In 2012 Weightmans were embroiled in a controversy after it emerged they had unlawfully accessed the credit files of individuals who were opponents in litigation against their clients. [16] The unlawful conduct was exposed after a lawyer working for Weightmans was sacked for reporting them to the Law Society. [17] The Solicitors Regulatory Authority found this course of conduct was in breach of Practice Rule 8 of the Professional Conduct of Solicitors 1999. [18]

In April 2022, Weightmans sponsored a Fleetwood Town F.C. football match hosted by convicted fraudster Andrew Pilley. [19] The sponsoring of the event came just months after Pilley was charged with multiple fraud and money laundering offences (which he was later convicted for), with Weightmans representing Pilley and his company BES Utilities in a trial in the High Court; pending what turned out to be an adverse judgement. [20]

In 2024, Weightmans found itself in further allegations of data breaches after it emerged two solicitors had accessed a client case file and extracted documents to instruct third-party solicitors in a personal matter. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

In the United Kingdom (UK), a post-1992 university, synonymous with new university or modern university, is a former polytechnic or central institution that was given university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, or an institution that has been granted university status since 1992 without receiving a royal charter. This is used in contrast to "pre-1992" universities.

The Legal Practice Course (LPC) – also known as the Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice – is a postgraduate course and the final educational stage for becoming a solicitor in England, Wales and Australia. The course is designed to provide a bridge between academic study and training in a law firm. It is a one-year, full-time course, and tuition fees range from £8,000-£17,300 a year. A small proportion of students may have their fees and some living expenses paid for by future employers under a training contract.

Addleshaw Goddard LLP is an international law firm headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. It is structured as a fully integrated LLP and has more than 1,700 lawyers including 429 partners in 19 offices located in Aberdeen, Berlin, Doha, Dubai, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Hamburg, Leeds, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Manchester, Munich, Muscat, Paris, Riyadh and Singapore and an affiliated office in Tokyo. The firm advises FTSE 100 and other major companies across corporate, commercial, finance and project, real estate and litigation business divisions with specialist fields such as private capital; energy, financial services, health and life sciences, real estate, retail and consumer, construction and transport sectors; and has a strong interest in tech.

Addleshaw Booth & Co was an English law firm which merged with Theodore Goddard in May 2003 to form Addleshaw Goddard.

Irwin Mitchell is a full service law firm in the United Kingdom, established in Sheffield in 1912. The firm offers legal and wealth management services from its 17 offices, and employs more than 3,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TLT LLP</span> British law firm

TLT LLP is a UK law firm headquartered in Bristol. It was named Law Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2021. Based on its revenue, TLT was among the top 50 law firms in the UK in 2020, according to The Lawyer. Its revenue was £110m in 2020–21; this represents an increase of 11% on 2019–20 (£98.8m) and a 25% rise on the 2018–19 figure (£87.6m). The firm employs over 1,000 staff. The firm has offices in London and Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast and opened its Birmingham office in 2023.. Overseas, the firm operates an office in Piraeus, Greece. It also has strategic partnerships with European firms GSJ advocaten in Belgium and Holla in the Netherlands to deliver international cross border services for clients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browne Jacobson</span> British law firm

Browne Jacobson LLP is a UK & Ireland law firm with offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Exeter, London, Manchester, and Nottingham. It offers services across a number of key UK and international markets: corporates, education, government, health, financial services & insurance. It has over 1000 employees, with over 450 lawyers of which over 150 are partners. The firm works with regional, national and international clients in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Fieldfisher LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in London. The firm has 26 offices located in countries around the world. It advises national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dickinson Dees</span>

Dickinson Dees LLP was a law firm of the United Kingdom that traded between 1975 and 2013.

Hill Dickinson is a British international commercial law firm headquartered in Liverpool, United Kingdom. With more than 200 partners and 950 staff, the firm operates from six UK offices and four overseas offices.

Wragge & Co LLP was a UK-headquartered international law firm providing a full range of legal services to UK and international clients. Wragge & Co merged with the London law firm Lawrence Graham in May 2014, forming Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. In 2016, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co merged with the Canadian law firm Gowlings to become Gowling WLG.

Blake Morgan LLP is a large full-service commercial law firm with offices in Cardiff, London, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading and Southampton in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 2014 following a merger between the Cardiff-based Morgan Cole and the Portsmouth-based Blake Lapthorn. It employs approximately 415 lawyers and 145 other fee-earners. It has 130 partners. It is registered with the Law Society of England and Wales.

The legal services sector of the United Kingdom is a significant part of the national economy; it had a total output of £22.6 billion in 2013, up from 10.6 billion in 2001, and is equivalent to 1.6% of the country's gross domestic product for that year. The sector has a trade surplus is £3.1 billion in 2013 and directly employees 316,000 people, two-thirds of whom are located outside London. The UK is the world's most international market for legal services. It allows virtually unrestricted access for foreign firms, resulting in over 200 foreign law firms with offices in London and other cities in the UK. Around half of these are US firms, with the remainder mainly from Europe, Australia and Canada. The UK legal market has a strong global position due to the popularity of English law. Some 27% of the world's 320 legal jurisdictions use English Common law.

Mills & Reeve LLP is a law firm headquartered in London. It has offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Norwich and Oxford. It is the UK's 40th largest law firm measured by 2021/22 revenues. The firm has been named for a record nineteenth year running in the 100 Best Companies to Work For annual survey, one of a small number of organisations to have achieved a listing for 19 years running and the only UK law firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DWF Group</span> Company

DWF is a global legal business, headquartered in London, England, with 31 offices across the world. In March 2019, DWF was listed on the London Stock Exchange. With a £366m valuation and offer size of £95m, DWF became the UK's largest listed law firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pick Everard</span>

Pick Everard is a UK-based multi-disciplinary consultancy, operating primarily in the built environment. The company was founded in Leicester in 1866 as an engineering and architectural practice. It has since grown to become a national practice with over 600 employees and 15 UK offices including a head office in Leicester and offices in Glasgow, London, Cardiff and Manchester.

Murgitroyd is an international practice of intellectual property attorneys, headquartered in Glasgow, which specialises in patents, trade marks, designs and copyrights. The practice was established in 1975 and currently has 22 offices worldwide, and over 440 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuckers Solicitors</span> British law firm

Tuckers Solicitors LLC, known as Tuckers Solicitors, is a national criminal defence law firm that has particular specialisation in serious crime, extradition, martial and military law, civil liberties, human rights, cyber crime and is one of the largest law firms headquartered in London. The firm featured in series of television shows about crime and disorder on national channels and has appeared on national news, commenting on various legal affairs.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Weightmans". Chambers and Partners. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  2. ↑ "About us: who we are and what we do". Weightmans. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  3. 1 2 "Weightmans profits up 12.5% after merger". The Law Society Gazette. 17 July 2023. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  4. ↑ "Weightmans LLP". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  5. ↑ "Weightmans - Overview". The Lawyer. Retrieved 2015-03-07.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "History of the Practice". Weightmans. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  7. ↑ "Weightmans expands European operations with hire of team from London's Pierre Thomas Law". BusinessLive. 4 September 2023. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  8. ↑ "Weightmans Birmingham". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  9. ↑ "Solicitors in Cardiff". Weightmans. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  10. ↑ "Weightmans Glasgow". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  11. ↑ "Weightmans Leeds". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  12. ↑ "Weightmans Leicester". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  13. ↑ "Weightmans London". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  14. ↑ "Weightmans Manchester". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  15. ↑ "Weightmans Manchester". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  16. ↑ Evans, Rob (13 December 2014). "Guess who's looking at your credit report …". The Guardian.
  17. ↑ "Weightmans – Law firm of the year | Mr Ethical". 16 December 2014.
  18. ↑ "Adjudication | Mr Ethical".
  19. ↑ "The Gazette and Weightmans to sponsor Wimbledon fixture". 22 April 2022.
  20. ↑ "Weightmans sponsors event hosted by convicted criminal". 26 June 2024.
  21. ↑ "Weightmans in data breach scandal over misuse of case files". 31 May 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.