Practical LawConferences

A Commercial Litigation solicitor by training, Simon moved away from client-facing legal work whilst at Pannone LLP in Manchester.  As  a non-fee-earning partner and then Equity Partner there, he was Head of Commercial Litigation for a period and at times was also the Head of Construction and Head of Crime/Fraud too. He worked with other teams to help their business. He was Marketing Partner, Head of Business Development, and part of the Management Team. While he was at Pannone he launched the national Connect2Law referral and support network for law firms in the North West and then packaged this so it could be franchised in other regions around the country. In late 2007 he joined Darbys, a Top 200 law firm in Oxford, as Equity Partner and as managing Partner. A reconstruction of the firm was required so the last 5 years has seen fevered activity during still difficult times, but the firm has long since turned the corner and 2012 is seeing some 30% year-on-year growth in turnover. The firm has just had its first £1m billing month. Since joining Darbys, Simon designed and launched the PURPLE LEGAL brand which now has 17,000 households involved, and this year saw the acquisition by Darbys  of Legal Assistance Direct – a high-quality legal helpline and call centre operation which is a legal resource for some 5 million people.