Dawsons trio defects to rival Hunters over strategy clash

Hunters Solicitors has raided Lincoln’s Inn rival Dawsons Solicitors, taking three of its most experienced partners.

Senior partner Joe Richardson, commercial partner Andrew Allan and private client partner Edward Martineau will join Hunters in April next year, after more than 30 years at Dawsons.

Richardson told The Lawyer: “Dawsons has expanded considerably in the past few years and the three of us have felt increasingly uncomfortable with the more commercial working practices inevitably associated with a larger law firm. It’s against this background that the three of us, after the most careful consideration, have decided, over the course of the past few months, to move on.”

Dawsons will lose a seventh of its 21 partners in one fell swoop. The firm has doubled its turnover in three years. The firm billed £8.5m in the year ending April 2003 and expects to boost that to £10m next year.

Dawsons’ managing partner Matthew Rea told The Lawyer: “I think it’s actually a very positive change because if people are not happy with the direction the firm is going then they have to move on.”

Rea said that he remained committed to measured growth and hoped to be recruiting new partners soon.

Hunters was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.