Hall Brown’s Investments in Staff and Community Key to Continued Success 

Published on 12 April, 2019 | Sam Hall

One of the country’s fastest growing family law firms has announced that focusing on its responsibilities to clients, colleagues and the local community contributed to further remarkable growth over the course of the last year.

Hall Brown Family Law has seen turnover up by almost 50 per cent during a 12-month period in which its staff numbers increased by more than a quarter.

Managing Partner James Brown has revealed that the firm’s determination to reward the contribution of staff to its success had led to the promotion of Claire Reid as partner.

He added that Hall Brown’s continued growth had allowed it to support vital social initiatives.

In addition to establishing bursaries to enable students from underprivileged backgrounds to receive a university education, the firm played a key role in a campaign to save a pioneering court system designed to help prevent the children of parents addicted to drugs or alcohol from being taken into care.

“We feel that we have made significant strides over the last year, both in and out of the office.

“By recruiting more top-quality lawyers in Manchester and London, we have reinforced our ability to deliver the very high standard of service which we set when we launched and which we consider to be our hallmark.

“Claire is instrumental in that process, not only winning the plaudits of clients but helping her more junior colleagues realise their full potential.

“That we have been able to do that at the same time as playing our part in keeping families together and supporting students obtain degree-level education is equally rewarding and meets one of our founding objectives of giving something back to the wider community.”

Mr Brown has detailed how Hall Brown’s turnover over the last 12 months topped £3.2 million – an increase of more than £1 million on the previous year’s figure.

Hall Brown now employs 32 staff – up from 23 last April – 22 of whom are fee earners.

They include Claire Reid – whose promotion to partner comes two years after she joined as Senior Associate from a larger rival firm – and Izzy Walsh, who became Head of Hall Brown’s new, larger London office at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in February.

Mr Brown has described how Hall Brown’s staff were able to capitalise on a wide range of benefits designed to keep them “healthy, happy and productive”, including free yoga and physiotherapy sessions, weekends away and even a regular supply of soft drinks, fruit and chocolate.

He has also emphasised how Hall Brown’s progress has been more than merely financial. In October, it was not only named among a handful of Tier One family law firms in the North West by Legal 500 but selected as one of the 200 best law firms in England and Wales by The Times newspaper.

In July, the firm also launched a campaign which raised more than £280,000 from private backers and philanthropists to found a new national partnership to replace the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) National Unit, which had been forced to close when the Government withdrew funding.

The following month, Hall Brown became the first legal practice to support a social mobility initiative enabling students from underprivileged backgrounds across Greater Manchester to receive a university education.

The arrangement means three undergraduates at the University of Manchester receiving £6,000 bursaries from the firm over the course of their law degrees.

Hall Brown was also awarded the title of Business Supporter of the year by the Forever Manchester charity after an 18-strong team from the firm raised £3,500 on the charity’s behalf by taking part in last year’s Great Manchester Run.