Spotlight | Hugh Jones

For Hugh Jones, legal practice had become too process-driven. After 34 years in the law, he decided he needed a new direction. He’d lost touch with his clients, seen his role move into management territory and he missed the personal approach. Jones wanted to get back to basics. In March, the former head of Pannone’s Court of Protection team set up on his own.

“I’d got away from this idea that ?you sit down, you’ve got your clock running and there’s your bill,” he says. “We are a profession, after all, and we ought to be able to think a little bit more sympathetically, certainly with people with disability. You do need to put more time in, but I don’t necessarily have to charge them for every minute of that time.”

For his new firm, Jones wanted to create an open, accessible workplace with a family atmosphere where lawyers are readily available for clients again. “Because these people lack capacity, routine, steadiness and knowing that things aren’t changing are often important to them. When you walk into this office, you don’t think ‘solicitors’,” he says of the former brewery site in Salford. “We’re trying to wind the clock back to more old-fashioned values that perhaps the profession has lost.”

Jones has seen significant changes since joining the sector in 1978 ?and qualifying at Manchester-based Howards, the firm that would eventually merge into Pannone. Throughout his training contract he realised litigation wasn’t for him, so he moved into traditional private client work, ?including some conveyancing at the time.

Taking his first steps in Court of Protection work in the mid-80s, his debut role as deputy was representing an architect whom had become incapacitated following a head injury. “I had the pleasant task not just of helping him out of that but going down to a hearing before the master in London and getting him discharged from the court,” says Jones. “That was quite rewarding, but it was just part of one’s everyday work. It wasn’t that I thought, ‘this is what I want to do for the rest of my life’.”

Career ladder

• 1978: Joined Howards (precursor to Pannone)
• 1978: Qualified
• 1983: Made partner at Pannone
• 1990s: Promoted to head of private client department at Pannone
• 2005: Became head of Court of Protection at Pannone
• 2013: Launched Hugh Jones Solicitors

Turning point

The specialism, however, would define Jones’ career. He noticed cases coming through the personal injury and clinical negligence departments at Pannone and seized the potential. “I was in at the early days when the litigators started to think about adding the costs of professional deputyships to claims,” he says.

As compensation levels grew in the mid-90s, so did the idea of looking after other people’s monies – a big concern for clients. Jones remembers being “grilled” by a leading QC, unhappy about this extra cost. “But gradually the profession – and the defendants, to be fair – started to realise that this was a reasonable issue,” he says.

Jones went on to build one of the UK’s largest Court of Protection teams at Pannone: 50 members, all working from one office. It was a successful venture of which he was very proud. But, understandably, the firm changed over three decades, and he left in March. “I just felt that my approach was no longer in tune with everything and I thought it would be better for me to try a new challenge and see if it was possible to present a different offering to clients,” he says. “Biggest isn’t necessarily best.”

Jones feels optimistic about carving out his niche business. The legal landscape has shifted, he says, leaving a gap for bespoke businesses. “I think the days of the big generic practice are numbered,” he adds, “and I think now it’ll be much more the approach of clients looking for specific people to do specific tasks for them.”

And Court of Protection work will only increase, he believes. “A lot of people perhaps have focused on the personal injury, clinical negligence side of things, but when you look around at the changing demographic that we’ve got – people living longer, elderly clients with dementia, people with mental health problems – there is an increased need ?for this sort of service or the support for lay family deputies.

“There’s very much a broader spectrum of clients who could benefit from this service and I think the awareness from the public at large and, to some extent, of professionals (lawyers, bankers and financial people) needs raising.”

With that knowledge, the industry must provide empowerment for vulnerable clients, he adds. “I come from the school of thought that says if you can help somebody to do something for themselves that’s far more beneficial to them than you trying to do it for them. So it’s about support rather than control.”

Supportive role

Jones has based his new practice on this empathetic ethos. “It’s trying to look at life through [clients’] eyes and trying to think a little bit more about what they want from life, so rather than the traditional lawyers’ approach – How many hours can I spend? How much money can I make? – it’s more about really looking at it from their perspective to see how we can try to improve things.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’re still going to earn some money, we’re doing a job for them, but it’s trying to think about doing work that takes them forward. It’s having an understanding.”

The new venture is a gamble, he admits. But the personal rewards are already there. “It took about three years to extract myself but the moment I opened the door and set things up here, I felt relieved,” he says. “I had become a grumpy old man and I’d like to think that I’ve taken a step where I feel I can make my own decisions: I chose where we are, I choose the people that work with me, I create the environment we work in.”

Pannone agreed Jones could hive off a section of the business. He has clients and he’s building a new team, aiming for about 20 staff. It’s not starting from scratch, it’s embracing another beginning.

“Certain people thought a man of my age – I’m nearly 58 – should be retiring not thinking about opening a new chapter,” he says. “It’s getting back to a true profession, I think, and if I’m an old dinosaur in that respect, so be it.”

Jennifer Palmer-Violet is acting editor of Private Client Adviser

Metal hand in glove What makes a good Court of Protection solicitor? “Given that a lot of my clients are obviously people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, it’s having an empathy, an understanding, and remembering that the person you’re sitting in front of wasn’t always like this. The reason they perhaps have difficulties, perhaps have behavourial problems, is not their fault – that’s the whole point, that it was somebody else’s fault and that’s why we’ve got the compensation. “You’ve got to keep very calm with people who can sometimes fly off the handle because of how they are and be able to work gently with them to persuade them to a point of view which is in their best interest – that’s always the point. “It’s a certain skill, I think. It’s less, perhaps, hard legal skill. That’s the sort of person I hope I am but also the people that I’m having around me at the firm. “I think the calm approach is something I’ve had to learn in many respects. I think like most people I can have my moments but I try to have those in private, behind closed doors. When one’s dealing with a client, you’ve got to present a very calm and authoritative front. But at the same time, maybe not with clients, but certainly family members or people who perhaps don’t have the client’s best interests at heart, you’ve got to be fairly tough with to make sure they’re not taking advantage. “So it’s the metal hand in the glove. You have to be hard at times but equally you’ve got to always remember that you’re working for this disadvantaged individual. You’re there for their benefit.”