Foot Anstey reveals top team for Bristol base
Foot Anstey has unveiled the partner line-up for its new Bristol office, which is targeting £5m in revenue within three years.
John Westwell
The South West firm is aiming for 45 per cent growth by 2014 to generate a turnover of £30m, with 16 per cent of that, £5m, coming from the Bristol base. At the latest year-end the firm saw turnover increase by 1.5 per cent, from £20.3m to £20.6m.
Foot Anstey announced its October Bristol launch last month (The Lawyer, 2 August 2011).
The firm has made a number of appointments to the office in line with its target growth areas of media, banking and financial services, and employment and pensions. This includes former Hammonds senior associate Richard Neary, who joins the firm as an employment partner, Herbert Smith of counsel Anna Bateman who joins as a dispute resolution partner and Burges Salmon senior associate Will Whitt, who joins as a banking partner.
“It’s all part of our response to the Legal Services Act (LSA),” managing partner John Westwell said. “We see it as an important opportunity for us - all the balls are going to be thrown in the air and nobody knows where they’re going to land. We want to be in the right place when that happens.”
The firm is also addressing its client profile, with ambitions to move upmarket, targeting those with higher turnovers. In the summer the firm was appointed to Halfords legal panel.
Westwell said that Foot Anstey had no plans to open a base in London, preferring instead to serve national clients from its South West roots.
