It’s hardly a mystery worthy of local sleuth Endeavour Morse, but a minor dispute has emerged over which law firm can lay claim to being the oldest in Oxfordshire.

That distinction has long been the proud boast of HMG Law, formerly Herbert Mallam Gowers. Founding father Thomas Mallam set up shop in Oxford’s Turl Street in 1838.

Fiddlesticks!, protests Nicola Poole, managing director of Hedges Law in the Banbury Road. ‘John Kirby Hedges founded Hedges in 1789 and it continues today 236 years later,’ she tells the Gazette. 

Who to believe?

Perhaps an ambiguity lies in whether we are talking about Oxfordshire, or just Oxford. HMG has an office in Bicester. Or maybe it’s a question of what counts as a legitimate antecedent. Thomas Mallam’s father, Richard, founded a firm in 1788, a year earlier than John Hedges. However, that business was actually an estate agents.

Never mind – the question will soon be academic. On 31 January, HMG Law is being swallowed up by Thames Valley legal giant RWK Goodman in a merger deal. 

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