SOLICITORS JOIN FORCES FOR "NEW ERA"

Two of Beverley’s longest established law firms marked the start of a new era by joining forces at the turn of the year.

North Bar-based Patersons Solicitors, established in 1945, and Crust Todd Mills & Co Solicitors (CTM), in existence for over 200 years, officially merged on January 2.

In a historic move, the joint venture will effectively become a Beverley-based branch of Sandersons Solicitors of Hull, which acquired the Crust Todd Mills group in 1998.

As part of the deal, Patersons will move its operation into Crust Todd Mill’s prestigious office accommodation at The Hall, Lairgate in Beverley at the end of this month.

The new company will be headed by Simon Griffiths, who is presently based at Sandersons’ matrimonial department in Hull.

He described the move as and exciting development for all parties involved.

He assured clients of both firms that it would lead to a better service with greater access to specialist advice.

He added that the new firm which will be called Paterson CTM, will be fully operational from the Lairgate office from January 31 onwards.

He told the Mail this week: “I believe that this is an exciting opportunity for us to provide a fuller and more diverse service to the public and build even further on the huge number of client relationships which have been established by both firms over a period of many years.”

Commercial property and probate expert Bruce Cherrington of Patersons added: “As our practice has grown, our clients have asked us for advice on an increasingly wide range of matters and areas of law. We have not always been able to provide this expertise as we have been a relatively small practice. The driving force behind the merger from our point of view is that we will now be able to offer our clients advice in a number of areas that we have not been able to in the past. It retains business in Beverley but gives us more expertise. The law has become much more specialised and much more complex in recent year. It is now so important that each individual solicitors does what they know and knows what they do. This is definitely the way forward and we are delighted to be associated with Sandersons which has an exceptional reputation.”

Source: Hull Daily Mail – January 2002