The Firm
A practice held in two hands.
Bath since 1894. London since 2008. Approximately thirty partners. A small, deliberate firm by design.
The Firm
History since 1894.
Edmund Pellican took his articles in Bath in 1888 and opened the firm at 14 Queen Square in 1894 with one clerk and a junior. The first ledger records seven matters in the opening month: three conveyances, two wills, a partnership dissolution, and a piece of advice on a brewery licence. The firm has occupied the same building for the entire 130 years since.
Henry Hart joined as a junior in 1903, took silk in 1921, and made the firm a two-name partnership in 1928. The Hart family stayed in the practice for three generations; the line ended formally in 1994 with the retirement of Geoffrey Hart, but the name stayed.
The London office at Eight Bishopsgate opened in 2008. The firm had taken corporate and dispute-resolution work into the City for two decades, and the office formalised what was already happening. Margaret Pellican became senior managing partner in 2018.
The firm’s founding ledger and all subsequent partnership minutes are held in the Bath chambers. Clients are welcome to see them on request; we suggest a quiet hour in the late afternoon.
Partners
The partnership.
The partnership has approximately thirty members across the two offices. Twelve sit in Bath, eighteen in London. The Bath office is the senior practice and houses private client, trusts and probate, and Bath-region real estate. The London office houses corporate, dispute resolution, tax, and City real estate.
Partners are admitted on a slow track. The firm has not made a partner in a five-year horizon below ten years’ qualification. We accept that this is unfashionable.
Senior partner
Margaret Pellican, qualified 1991, partner 2002, senior partner since 2018. Bath chambers. Private client and probate.
Managing partners
Henry Whitford, qualified 1989, partner 1999. London office. Corporate and tax. Chair of the corporate practice committee.
Joanna Reeve, qualified 1994, partner 2006. London office. Dispute resolution. Chair of the litigation committee.
David Soames, qualified 1996, partner 2008. Bath chambers. Real estate, listed buildings.
Locations
Two offices. One firm.
14 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HJ
Eight Bishopsgate, 32nd Floor, EC2N 4BQ
An initial consultation, by appointment.
We reply to every enquiry within two working days, in writing, and we say plainly whether we are the right firm for the matter.
Make an enquiry