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Taylor Retires After 40 Years With the Same Law Firm- 30/03/2010
One of Wolverhampton’s longest serving solicitors has stepped down after nearly 40 years with the same law firm.
Peter Taylor leaves FBC Manby Bowdler’s Litigation Department, where he specialised in white collar crime, licensing and regulatory law, but will continue his role as a Deputy District Judge on the Midland Circuit.
Mr Taylor joined the law firm known as Woolley Beavon & Littleford in Wolverhampton in November 1970, and remained with the same legal practice through a series of mergers which resulted in today’s firm of FBC Manby Bowdler.
A litigator by training, who has worked with clients across Staffordshire and Shropshire, Mr Taylor believes that the legal profession is now highly efficient but less confrontational than when he first started.
He said: “Clients and lawyers are now quite properly much more interested in keeping costs down, avoiding going to court if possible, and using processes such as Alternative Dispute Resolution and mediation. The high quality of practitioners involved in Civil Litigation nowadays has no doubt been contributed to by the increasing specialisation of solicitors in discrete areas of the law.”
Gavin Southall, FBC Manby Bowdler’s senior partner said: “It is increasingly rare that one solicitor remains with the same firm for such a long time as Peter, and I would like to pay tribute to the contribution he has made to the firm in all its guises throughout that time. Our licensing and regulatory crime work continues to go from strength to strength, with the department safe in the hands of David Campbell.”
Mr Taylor lives with his wife Pat in the village of Brewood on the Staffordshire / Shropshire border, where he is a former Captain and present Trustee of the village cricket club. He plans to spend more time with his three daughters and four grand-daughters, and on his interests in Northumberland and his charity work.