Leading solicitor Hywel Davies is joining forces with a historic practice to create one of North Wales’s biggest law firms.
His company, Hywel Davies & Co, is merging with Gamlins Solicitors LLP as part of an expansion across the region into Southern Snowdonia.
The enlarged company, which can trace its roots back to 1889 in Rhyl and the 1890’s in Bala will have more than 50 staff across eight offices.
With a weekly clinic in Dolgellau, the latest branch of Gamlins LLP is based at 74 High Street in Bala.
Mr Davies will continue to work from the offices with his six-strong team, joined by Gwennan Jones, who is moving from Gamlins Solicitors LLP’s Llandudno office to be nearer her home close to Bala.
The merged company will be known as Gamlins Solicitors LLP, incorporating Hywel Davies & Co, and follows a link-up last year with William George and Son – founded by Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George – in Porthmadog.
Mr Davies, who played a prominent role representing child abuse victims in the Waterhouse North Wales care home inquiry, founded his Bala law firm exactly 30 years after taking over the legal practice from former MP William Edwards.
“I took over in September 1984 and after three decades in sole practice I feel that it is time to secure the future of the firm” said Mr Davies.
“I decided to merge with Gamlins Solicitors LLP because they have good representation across North West Wales, and I felt they were very strongly Welsh orientated.
“This is a bilingual practice and it was important to me that this continued. It is essential that our clients can talk in either Welsh or English when they meet their solicitor, as often they are talking about issues that affect them deeply – both practically and emotionally.
“This merger is a significant and exciting development in the history of Hywel Davies & Co. Not only does it secure the continuation of the business founded by me 30 years ago, in direct succession to other solicitors over a century, but it also means that the office, through my new colleagues, will be able to provide a far wider range of legal services, to specialist level. I feel rejuvenated by the prospect of working with such a talented team.”
“The Bala office and Dolgellau clinic will now offer free lunch time advice sessions”, said Mark Salisbury, partner in Gamlins Solicitors LLP.
Mr Salisbury, who is based in Llandudno, where he specialises in company, commercial and property law, said: “We are expanding our legal services into Meirionnydd and down into Mid Wales, and merging Hywel Davies & Co seemed ideal, especially as our merger with William George and Son in Porthmadog has been so successful.
“The merger, along with the free weekly advice sessions, is all part of a programme to ensure that we are serving the legal needs of rural communities across North and Mid Wales. We already hold the advice sessions at some of our other offices, which followed the changes in the present Legal Aid arrangements.”
