Litigation specialist Stewarts Law has hired James Price from Farrer & Co to launch a trusts litigation practice in the City.
Price joins as head of a new trusts litigation practice and has been tasked with building out a team the firm hopes will compete with established players in the market. He leaves Farrer & Co after more than two decades at the firm, with the last 11 years spent as a partner.
The litigator is well known in the market and is rated by The Legal 500 as one of 25 leading individuals in the City for contentious trusts and probate work.
Price is the second trusts litigator to depart from Farrer’s team recently, with Peter Steen departing for Mishcon de Reya at the start of 2015 to build out that firm’s private client practice.
While private client work remains a niche practice, with firms like Farrer & Co, Boodle Hatfield and Charles Russell Speechlys strong in this area, large City firms such as Berwin Leighton Paisner and Macfarlanes have grown their teams in this area with London home to more billionaires than any other city in the world, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2015. London is home to 80 of the UK’s 117 billionaires, with a combined wealth of £325bn.
Stewarts Law, the UK’s largest litigation-only firm, has been working to diversify its practice areas over the past decade. The last practice to be launched was a tax litigation team at the end of 2014 when the firm hired David Pickstone from Big Four accountant PwC.
Stewarts Law recorded double digit revenue growth in 2014/15, up of 14% to £53m, as its net profit rose 12% to £23m.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk
