Larcomes Solicitors which has offices in Portsmouth and Waterlooville has scooped the title Niche Legal Team of the Year at a prestigious legal conference and awards dinner.
Larcomes was announced as the winner of the award by the 360 Legal Group, at its annual dinner on Thursday October 2nd which took place at Chesford Grange in Warwickshire.
It is the fourth year that Bristol-based 360 Legal Group, which helps law firms across the UK manage and market their practices more successfully as businesses, has held the awards to find and recognise practices of all sizes who are not only adapting but also responding to the fast changing conditions facing the legal profession and the difficult economic climate they are facing.
The Judges were looking for evidence of strategic vision and a clear focus within a firm that could show that they are doing something genuinely different. The team showed clear evidence of their commitment to offer support for sufferers of Asbestos related Diseases. The firm are closely involved with the charity HASAG (who are a charity supporting Asbestos Disease Sufferers across the South of England) and over the years members of the team have undertaken a variety of sponsored lengthy walks and have run a marathon to raise funds for HASAG and other asbestosis related charities.
Richard Hopgood, who heads up the Industrial Diseases Team within Larcomes and who is one of the member directors donates his time entirely pro bono to be part of a current national study being undertaken by a panel of leading experts to learn more about improving the quality of life when treating malignant mesothelioma (www.respect-meso.org).
There was a lot of competition for this award, but what made Larcomes stand out from the rest was that as a team their collective specialist knowledge of mesothelioma cases means that they are happy to take on the much trickier cases to prove liability on (many of these cases have already been declined by other solicitors). The team are used to having to do a great deal of detective work to trace defunct companies and their insurers. As well as this they have built and continue to build a working knowledge of the particular types of material that contain asbestos, many of which are not widely known.
Presenting the award, Viv Williams, Chief Executive of 360 Legal Group said: “This award shows evidence of a team that is committed to support sufferers of mesothelioma and asbestos related charities. Larcomes is a deserved winner”.
Janice Ward, Practice Director at Larcomes Solicitors said: “We were delighted to receive the award and the team was delighted to have its efforts to support sufferers of mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases acknowledged”.
Pictured from left to right is Viv Williams of 360 Legal Group, together with Janice Ward of Larcomes and Bernadette Bennett of Moneypenny who were this year’s Sponsor for the Specialist Legal Team of the Year Award.