The firm's present era began in 1976 when Roger Wallis returned to take over the firm where he had been articled.
Roger had been away from the firm since 1968 working firstly as an assistant solicitor in Nottingham and Louth and then practising as a barrister from London Chambers on the Midland and Oxford circuit.
When Roger returned he was still very much a general practitioner combining visits to the civil and criminal courts with conveyancing and other non-contentious work. In 1978 he invited Andrew Payne, who had just qualified, to become an assistant solicitor and in 1979 Andrew joined the partnership.
The firm grew strongly during the 1980s. Despite one departure the partnership doubled to four with Steven Wilson and John Mitchell joining us and the first steps towards specialisation were made.
During this time Hodgson Carlyle & Co had become our neighbours at 46 Silver Street. That firm had been founded by Harold Hodgson in 1974. He had been the last Town Clerk of the old Lincoln
Gary Phillips joined the partnership in 1991. During the 1990s the firm concentrated on widening the practice by adding non partner fee earners. These grew from one assistant solicitor and three or four other fee earners in 1991 to six associates, four assistant solicitors, seven trainee solicitors and twelve other fee earners in the year 2007.
Over the years the firm has shown a strong commitment to training its own people. Of the present partners, seven were articled to Sills & Betteridge and one to Hodgson Carlyle & Co. Currently three out of our ten solicitors were trainees at the firm and all but one of the non-solicitor fee earners have been trained by the firm.
Two important factors in the growth of the firm over the last decade have been increased specialisation and the use of information technology. The firm is now fully departmentalised. In 1990 electric typewriters were the norm. Today all fee earners and secretaries in all our offices use a fully networked computer system.
The firm is poised to develop further through the 21st century, building on the successes of the past
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