Ansons: Simon James, Jane Helliwell, Kamal Majevadia, Amanda Cooksley, Sarah Heath, Brian Middlecote, Sarah Popp, Kate Pearce Setting up a practice is rewarding but demanding and not for everyone, a partner at a new law firm in Staffordshire said this week.

Eight-partner Ansons has been formed after the Cannock and Lichfield offices of black country firm Hadens split off, and will be one of the largest practices in the county. The firm has 21 fee-earners and 60 staff in total, and is a limited liability partnership.


Commercial litigation and insolvency partner Kamal Majevadia – the only one of the eight who was not a partner at Hadens – said the demerger came about because the two offices were moving in a different direction from Hadens’ Walsall and Darlaston offices.


Ansons has a commercial focus, while private client work will be concentrated on high net-worth individuals – a field Mr Majevadia said is not well served in the region.


He said the demerger was amicable and the two firms were referring work to each other.


Senior partner Simon James said: ‘We are at the dawn of significant economic growth for the region, not least of which the opening of the M6 toll, which will have a major impact in terms of new businesses locating themselves here.’


The toll road has reduced the journey between the two offices.


Mr Majevadia – who was previously an associate at Birmingham giant Wragge & Co – said every lawyer has an idea of how their practice should be run ‘and here I’ve had a chance to put that into action’. He said the process was rewarding.


However, ‘it’s not for everyone’, he warned. ‘It’s extremely tough. The demerger process is very difficult, as is starting up.’ He said it is ‘surprising how much work needed to be done’, ranging from meeting Law Society requirements and upgrading IT to setting up banking facilities.


Challenges facing the firm in its first year include establishing its name – Hadens has been in the region since the 1930s, he said – instilling a new culture, maintaining the offices’ client base, getting the infrastructure right and ‘ensuring we deliver the service we want to achieve’.



Mr Majevadia said selecting a name was possibly the hardest task of all – they did not want to use partner names, while concept names are ‘old hat’. Ansons, chosen for being ‘snappy and a name people could associate with’, came in part from a legal textbook – Ansons Law of Contract.



Charles Underwood, Hadens’ managing partner, said his now eight-partner firm was consolidating after the split, and has hired lawyers to boost its commercial and residential property teams. ‘We are seeking to increase those areas we see as fundamental,’ he added, with the goal of being the leading commercial practice in the black country.