legal focus 21 Eric the Owl proves a hit


Since he made his debut at Southampton‘s Business Works exhibition in February, Eric the Owl has been taking the South Coast by storm, much to the delight of his employers, Eric Robinson Solicitors


Eric the Owl has been very busy. He has celebrated with year nine pupils from Upper Shirley High School who completed a National Literacy Trust ‘Words for Work‘ challenge, attended the Southampton ‘Help to Buy‘ fair for prospective property owners and kicked off Eric Robinson Solicitors‘ 2015 fundraising for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance with a step-a- thon.


”The charity was nominated and voted for by our staff,” says Catherine Maxfield, managing partner of Eric Robinson Solicitors which employs over 140 people at six offices across the Southampton, Winchester and the New Forest. ”We raised over £6,000 for Wessex Heartbeat‘s ‘HIGH 5 Appeal‘ during our golden anniversary last year, so our hope is to match, if not


exceed that success for another important local charity.”


Eric was also present to announce the firm‘s sponsorship of this year‘s Hampshire Food Festival, made his first public appearance at the ‘Fryern Funtasia‘ in Chandlers Ford and supported the firm-sponsored Hedge End Rangers football team


at the match where it won the Hampshire Combination League Cup.


”Everybody loves Eric and he has proved a great asset to the firm,” says Maxfield. ”We are very proud of him.”


Details: 023-8022-6891 enquiries@ericrobinson.co.uk www.ericrobinson.co.uk www.erictheowl.co.uk


London to Southampton – going against the grain


I can‘t quite believe that by the time this edition of The Business Magazine is published, four years will have passed since I left Clifford Chance and the glass towers of Canary Wharf to begin a new life as a lawyer in Southampton, says Crispin Dick of Paris Smith LLP


It was the kind of move many of my colleagues in London talked about, but very few plucked up the courage to go through with. I took the plunge however, emerging in Southampton as the new head of the commercial team at Paris Smith in 2011.


The reasons for the move were clear – to work in a firm that was small enough that I could feel like I was a part of the business, where I could help shape things and be an important part of developing the practice but large enough that I could continue to carry out interesting and challenging work for all sizes of client.


So what has it been like practising commercial law at Paris Smith and


how does it compare to working in magic circle firm in Canary Wharf? It is a question I am often asked. My specialism has not changed, but the type of clients I act for and the nature of the advice they require has changed a bit.


Naturally many of my clients now are Hampshire-based businesses. Some of them are as synonymous with the region as Paris Smith itself – for example the Ageas Bowl, the Mayflower Theatre and ABP. My clientele is now made up of many more entrepreneurs, owner- managed businesses and SMEs than before. This engenders a new kind of relationship with clients – often the advice required is as much strategic as legal, as clients look


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JUNE 2015


to your experience to act as their trusted adviser and not purely to be a technical legal expert.


At Paris Smith we actively try to encourage our relationships with innovative young businesses. We have close ties with the University of Southampton Science Park – it and many of its tenants are clients. We also have close ties with the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership. Nick


Vaughan, our senior partner, and I are co-company secretaries to the Solent LEP. However, there is still plenty of international and large- scale transactional work going on. My first year here saw me heading off to Belgium to assist on the sale of a pharmaceutical company to a US pharmaceutical giant for $300 million, and last year I was advising on some multi-million-dollar long-term supply agreements in Uganda. Both of these were the result of phone calls from former contacts at Clifford Chance. The result has been an enjoyable mix of old and new. I hope that the next four years are as varied and enjoyable as the past four have been.


Crispin Dick specialises in commercial contracts (see a detailed profile on the Paris Smith website).


Details:


023-8048-2107 crispin.dick@parissmith.co.uk www.parissmith.co.uk


www.businessmag.co.uk


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