Tim Wheldon: Tributes to leading Yorkshire lawyer who has died aged 64

Tim Wheldon, a leading figure of Yorkshire’s legal community, has died at the age of 64. Mr Wheldon was was head of Addleshaw Goddard’s Leeds office until his retirement in 2019.

Pervinder Kaur, current head of the firm’s Leeds office, said he was “a great man, I can’t describe how much he will be missed.”

She added, “Tim Wheldon helped so many of our clients with his fierce intelligence and charm, at every point navigating them through complex and demanding legal issues but he never lost sight of the people and the emotions behind everything he did.

“As a junior lawyer in the 90s he was someone we looked up to because he always had time to coach us, to give us the confidence we lacked at that point in our careers. We were all part of the same team and he ardently strived for our success and that was his sheer brilliance in everything he did, his ability to bring people together across all walks of life, to make them feel like they mattered.  

“Tim was hugely instrumental in the development of our business and will be remembered not just as one of our very best dealmakers and relationship partners, but as a hugely respected leader, mentor and friend to many current and former AG partners and staff. He was a leader you wanted to follow and his assertive confidence and panache inspired confidence in ourselves.”

Mr Wheldon was born in Hull, where he studied at at the independent Hymers College before qualifying as a solicitor, following in the footsteps of his father, prominent East Rising solicitor Terry Wheldon. Both father and son represented the late poet Philip Larkin.

He joined leading West Yorkshire corporate law firm Booth & Co – later merging with Addleshaw Sons & Latham to form Addleshaw Booth – in 1990. During this time he led the team advising the international investors of the Royal Armouries Museum, and led the public to private deals of Allied Carpets and Peter Black.

He was a partner with the firm until 2002, when he left to work first for an entrepreneur and then as a a corporate legal consultant.

In 2011 he returned to private practise, and rejoined the firm, now Addleshaw Goddard. Yunus Seedat, then head of corporate in Leeds, said then, “I am delighted that we have beaten off competition within the Yorkshire market to persuade Tim to join the Leeds team… Tim brings an insight into and understanding of managing family wealth and business interests and will work closely with the private client team to develop and exploit opportunities in this area.”

Mr Wheldon said at the time, “The firm I left was at the heart of every significant transaction in the local market, enjoyed a strong national blue-chip clientbase, and was well known for the quality of its people. It has built on that strong platform over the years, and I am delighted to be rejoining what is now one of the leading corporate teams in the UK.

“The firm’s ambitions match my own, and I look forward to sharing my wide experience in a way which creates value for clients and grows our market share.”

In 2015, by then head of the Leeds office, Mr Wheldon oversaw Addleshaw Goddard’s move to its present offices at 3 Sovereign Street, negotiating a 17-year lease.

On his retirement from the legal profession, he turned his attention to sheep farming, having bought a farm near Thirsk.