Fladgate LLP celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2010. A time to reflect on the firm’s evolution.
Historic Dates:
1760 George Stubbs sets up as sole practitioner, joined by W Fynmore
(Stubbs & Fynmore)
1835 William Mark Fladgate joins Clarke & Fynmore
(Clarke, Fynmore & Fladgate)
1979 Fladgate & Co merges with Walters Vandercom & Hart
(Walters Fladgate)
1988 Walters Fladgate merges with Fielder le Riche
(Fladgate Fielder)
2008 Fladgate LLP created
In 1760 a young lawyer called George Stubbs started practice as a sole practitioner in Suffolk Street, Charing Cross. William Mark Fladgate joined the practice in 1835 and soon became a partner. The name Fladgate has had an uninterrupted and prominent role in the firm ever since. However, while the Fladgate family provided a long line of partners, the firm has never been family owned. It has had a diverse range of partners over the years from many different backgrounds.
Until the mid-1980s the firm could be described as a traditional Lincoln’s Inn practice, which represented the great families of the landed aristocracy and their trustees. Fladgate’s clients also included important businessmen and politicians such as Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. One of the oldest and most famous connections came in 1862, with an instruction from Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, to help set up the Smithsonian Institution. Fladgate also represented the Great Exhibition of 1851, Charing Cross Hospital, and a number of well known utilities and banks, including Drummonds which Fladgate set up in the late 1700s. There were also some notable corporate clients, such as The Savoy Hotel Group.
Fladgate became one of the most respected, prominent and solid London legal practices. However, by the mid-1980s the legal and commercial landscape was noticeably and irrevocably changing. The partners recognised that the firm, then known as Walters Fladgate, must turn to a more commercially orientated client base if it was to survive and prosper into the 21st century.
As Fladgate’s current chairman, Paul Leese, who joined Walters Vandercom & Hart shortly before its merger with Fladgate & Co, comments:
"We enjoyed a significantly high quality client base. However, by the mid-80s a large part of the business remained involved with landed estates and their trustees and all partners felt the need for a change in direction".
A merger was sought, to help the firm turn its practice towards corporate, commercial and real estate. In 1988 Walters Fladgate merged with Fielder Le Riche to create Fladgate Fielder. The two firms were utterly different, but there were synergies. Fielder Le Riche was a commercial property practice with excellent corporate and litigation connections. It was enterprising, dynamic and entrepreneurial. Both partnerships saw the different cultures and clientele of the two firms as an advantage, with synergies that could be exploited. Despite cultural differences the merger proved a success.
Fladgate Fielder weathered the recession of the early 1990s and came out of that period with a leading corporate and commercial practice, to complement the firm’s strengths in property, litigation, tax and private client. On 1 April 2008 after nearly 20 years of consistent and impressive growth, Fladgate Fielder transferred its practice to a limited liability partnership, Fladgate LLP.
Fladgate continues to act for many prestigious clients and has a strong commercial presence in the domestic and international marketplace. The firm’s broad skill base covers a wide spectrum of legal services and Fladgate is rated highly in the Legal 500 and Chambers directories of the legal profession.
The firm’s relocation to Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, in August 2010, coincides with its celebration of its 250th anniversary, and marks a new and exciting chapter in the history of Fladgate. Commenting on this latest development Paul Leese says:
"The choice of Covent Garden came from a desire to find the best fit – culturally, practically and economically, for clients and staff. For clients it is about Fladgate retaining the entrepreneurial ethos of the West End, while at the same time delivering service and expertise associated with a City practice. This move to larger modern premises is all about looking forward – it is a sign of Fladgate’s confidence, ambition and plans for future growth."