2023 is a major milestone for Hugh Jones Solicitors – marking our 10 year anniversary and a decade of exciting achievements.
Led by the vision of our founder and Chairman, Hugh Jones, the firm was founded in 2013 to stand out from competitors in a number of ways. We wanted to get away from a de-personalised, process driven approach which often saw the client treated as a commodity and charged a premium rate. We built a firm on an unwavering commitment to treating vulnerable individuals and their loved ones with respect and a belief that if our staff are appreciated and looked after properly, they will treat our clients in the same way.
Since then, we’ve been on quite the journey – we grew to a team of 14 in our first year, by 2016, our workforce had trebled. We’ve extended our office twice and expanded into different regions, now employing a hybrid team of 68.
We’ve developed a successful training programme and nurture staff internally, creating opportunities that play to employees’ strengths and enable them to focus on the areas that interest them most. As a result, our team boasts some of the industry’s brightest talent in our core areas of Court of Protection, private client, mediation and training.
A major achievement for the firm is the amount of ground breaking Court of Protection work we have been involved with over the years. The Court of Protection rarely reports on cases and of those that have been reported, we’ve been involved with several, including:
This is a statutory will case where it was considered that "doing the right thing" was important when looking at the will of someone who lacks capacity.
An expert witness case where the Judge made an award for future deputyship costs and adopted Hugh Jones’s impressionistic approach rather than the claimant’s expert’s approach.
This was a case involving a client who had fluctuating capacity and case developed the legal test for revoking LPA and introduced the relevance of why an LPA was established.
A case where the Court determined that the council had unlawfully breached their duty to provide services under S117 MHA 1983.
This case explored whether the cost of a professional trustee could be recovered in a case where the client had capacity but was vulnerable. It was decided that the cost couldn’t be recovered.
We’re proud to have been recognised, ranked and accredited consistently by Chambers, The Legal 500, Lexcel and Investors in People – and we’re also no stranger to an awards ceremony. Over the years, we’ve built up an impressive trophy cabinet with awards and nominations from the Law Society’s Excellence Awards, The British Wills and Probate Awards, Manchester Legal Awards, Modern Law Awards and STEP Awards – where Hugh Jones was honoured to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Our Managing Director, Liz Hughes, commented: “Reaching 10 years is a wonderful achievement and we’re set to continue on the same path of success with exciting plans for the future.
I’d like to extend a huge thank you to our employees, industry peers and clients for all of their support over the years. Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
10 year celebration and thank you for staff at The Lowry Hotel, April 2023
MD Liz Hughes speaking at the event
