Historic appointment for 235-year-old law firm

Tom Ellis

A West Midlands law firm which was established 235 years ago has made an historic appointment.

Law firm Lodders has made Tom Ellis, partner in the firm’s risk & compliance team, its first general counsel.

Ellis is a specialist in solicitors’ professional regulation, professional liability and risk and compliance. He joined Lodders as an associate in 2018, was promoted to senior associate in 2019, and became a partner in July 2022.

With around 170 staff including 28 partners, Lodders is one of only a handful of independent law firms of its size in the UK to have a full-time in-house general counsel.

Lodders’ managing partner, Paul Mourton says that creating the new role further demonstrates the firm’s recognition of the importance compliance and regulation play in the legal sector:

“Compliance and regulation play an increasingly important part in the legal sector and appointing an in-house General Counsel is central to the firm’s risk and compliance agenda and strategy, and another example of us having experts in each necessary field to facilitate a compliant and profitable business,” he says.

“All law firms are required to have a Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP), who has overall responsibility for risk and compliance. Having a General Counsel, however, is not mandatory.

“Lodders is known as a pioneering and progressive law firm, and creating this new role is another example of the firm being ahead of the curve for a firm of our size.”

As Lodders’ general counsel, Ellis is the principal legal adviser to the firm, taking overall responsibility for the direction of risk and compliance as a function.

He said: “This translates into a hugely varied agenda, and I am involved in a broad spectrum of activities every day, from examining new and emerging risks, delivery advice to our lawyers on queries that arise in the firm’s daily practice, to dealing with contentious matters affecting the firm.”

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