Management restructure at law firm

A management restructure at Leeds, Hull and London law firm Hudgell Solicitors has seen a new chief executive take the helm.

Amanda Stevens (pictured below) will be working alongside founder Neil Hudgell, after being appointed as head of legal services in January 2016

She told The Lawyer that the management restructure and new business approach would ensure the firm is “ a beneficiary and not a victim” of new regulations.

Prior to joining Hudgell, Stevens was a partner at Irwin Mitchell, and before that Charles Russell.

Hudgell himself has been at the helm for most of its 20-year history, rebranding it from Neil Hudgell Solicitors in 2015. He oversaw an aggressive acquisition strategy following the Jackson reforms, buying up £5m of case files from nearly 30 other firms which sold off their personal injury departments to focus on other areas of law.

The firm also recently moved into the £15m @TheDock development in Hull, a 10,500 sq ft site.

Stevens added: “Hudgell Solicitors is very much a different law firm today to the one it was five years ago, and very different to what it was two years ago even.

“It is a firm which started as a local business which has grown into a top 150 law firm in the UK, a firm which is recognised as a specialist leader in its field nationally. With that comes a need for change in the business strategy and direction to reflect that.”

Pictured: Founder Neil Hudgell who will be working with new chief executive Amanda Stevens