Top claimant public law firm to close next month following partner departure

A leading claimant law firm in Birmingham that specialised in social welfare and general public law is to shut its doors next month after one of its partners decided to leave.

In a statement on its website, Public Law Solicitors confirmed “with great regret” that it would be closing on 19 June 2015.

The firm, which was set up in 2003, said: “Over a period of nearly 12 years we believe we have made an important contribution in the field of social welfare and general public law. Public Law Solicitors, however, has always been a small firm, entirely dependent for all aspects of its management and legal work on its three partners and a team of dedicated legal and administrative staff.

“In the last few months one of our partners has announced that he is leaving Public Law Solicitors. After much consideration we have decided that it is not practical for us to continue to keep the firm going. With the breaking up of the founding partnership team we believe that we would not be able to undertake the increasingly onerous responsibility of managing a niche practice and maintaining our high standards of work for our clients.”

The firm added that whilst the decision had been made having regard to an “increasingly hostile” environment for legal aid lawyers, it remained committed to the principle of the legal aid scheme and to the right of those without adequate financial means to be able to exercise their legal rights.

“This has not been an easy decision but we think it is the right one,” the statement said, stressing that closure had not been forced on it by financial considerations.

Karen Ashton is to work with Coventry Law Centre in developing its public interest litigation work, with a particular focus on the issues in social care arising out of the Care Act 2014.

Fellow partner Alastair Wallace will join Irwin Mitchell to lead its public law team in Birmingham. “He will continue to specialise in the full range of claimant based judicial review including his work on behalf of community groups in the planning and environmental fields,” the firm said.

Steve Lodge will meanwhile move to the legal team at the Equality & Human Rights Commission.

Public Law Solicitors’ cases included – alongside Leigh Day – a legal challenge by adults with disabilities over the impact of the Government’s ‘under-occupation charge’ or ‘bedroom tax’.

In January the Supreme Court gave permission for this appeal to go ahead.

Public Law Solicitors expressed the hope that as many of its staff that wished to would be able to continue in the same legal field. “There are already too few, whether as practitioners or support staff, specialising in public law,” it said.

The statement concluded: “Lastly, we wish to pay tribute to our clients for whom it has been our privilege to act. We are often astonished by their courage and tenacity at times of great stress, often taking on issues not only because of the need to solve real problems in their own lives but because  of their wish to bring about change for all those in the same situation.

“We set up the firm with the aim of making our contribution to improving the accountability of public authorities to those whose lives are dependent on their decisions, and we hope that we have been able to give our clients a  voice that they would not otherwise have had.”