Walker Morris lawyer and dealmaker, Peter Smart, has died

The man credited with turning Yorkshire law firm Walker Morris into a national player and one of the country’s most profitable legal practices, has died.

Peter Smart, who had a four-decade career at the Leeds firm, died on Monday after a short illness.

Described as a “straight-talking and flamboyant” character, he joined the then relatively small practice of Walker Morris & Coles as a trainee solicitor in the 1970s, qualified in 1979 and became a partner a year later.

He went on to head the firm’s corporate department while also becoming managing partner, finance partner and marketing partner and then executive chairman for nine years until 2010 when he became a consultant to the firm.

During this period Walker Morris took on the long-standing Leeds legal giants such as Simpson Curtis (now Pinsent Masons), Booth and Co (now Addleshaw Goddard), Hepworth and Chadwick (now Eversheds Sutherland) and Dibb Lupton & Co (now DLA Piper) and went on to compete with the so-called “Magic Circle” London-headquartered multinational law firms while remaining in one office in Leeds.

Smart is survived by his wife Glenys, children Lauren, Tamsin and Ben and six grandchildren.

Unlike many of his contemporaries in the legal profession, he did not immediately set out to be a lawyer.

Aged 18, he travelled to rock festivals around Europe before living in a cave in Greece for three months then getting a job as a roadie doing lighting for rock bands. He toured with The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Curved Air.

Paying tribute to him, his family said: “Walker Morris became central to Peter’s identity. He took incredible pride in those phenomenal lawyers who, over time, helped to grow the firm themselves, or who dispersed across the globe and drove forward other top legal practices.

“Over his 40-year Walker Morris career Peter was often known as much for his beard and swept back hair as he was his place within the firm. He was, from time-to-time, known as ‘Aslan’, by junior Walker Morris staff!

“Peter was executive chairman for his last nine full time years at Walker Morris. He was named as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the Lawyer Magazine and left behind a firm, a legacy and a family that he was so incredibly proud of.”