Retired Partner stories
As we celebrate 250 years of our Leeds office, we honour the people whose vision, commitment, and character have shaped both our firm and the wider legal profession. From the earliest foundations of Addleshaw Goddard to the dynamic, international firm we are today, our story has always been defined by its people, lawyers, business professionals and alumni whose contributions continue to inspire our culture and values.
To mark this milestone, we spoke with several of our Leeds alumni and former colleagues, capturing their reflections, insights, and memories of life at the firm. Their stories reveal not only the evolution of our practice, but also the enduring spirit of collaboration, integrity and community that connects generations of AG people. We invite you to explore these stories and discover the voices that continue to shape who we are today.
Robert Wade
A century of Wades: Legacy, leadership and lasting bonds
Four generations, one firm, and nearly a hundred years of service, Robert Wade reflects on a family legacy woven into the fabric of AG, the evolution of the legal profession and the timeless value of relationships.
1. Background/history:
Where to start? 1894 perhaps…that was the year my grandfather started his Articles with Mr Booth. Since that time, my grandfather, father, uncle, cousin and I have been Partners in the Firm. When I became a Partner in 1970, there were four Wades in a partnership of nine. When I left the Firm in 1993 after a stint as Senior Partner, a Wade had been associated with the Firm for almost 100 years!
Long associations have been a significant feature of the Firm over the years…both with clients and with staff.
For instance, the Firm’s association with Yorkshire Bank started in 1874.
One little anecdote from the past…in an exchange of letters from my grandfather to the Senior Partner, my grandfather asked if he could have a half day off as he was getting married…the reply was “I fear thou art of a roving disposition”! I have no note of whether he got his request, but I hope he did.
2. How has the Firm changed over the decades?
Massively! When I joined the Firm 1970 the total staff numbered 70 or so. It was in the 1980s when things really took off, and by the end of the 1980s, headcount was well over 500.
Since my time, the Firm has gone from strength to strength and grown massively. I am delighted to hear all the good news about the progress it has made and is continuing to make, nationally and internationally.
3. What do you value most about your time at the firm?
What I value most is the friendships I made whilst at the Firm. Some of us from my time with the Firm meet up regularly. We have a walking group that meets monthly, and we meet up for dinner from time to time.
4. Do you have a message to trainees joining the firm today?
My message to those starting out was the three A’s…Active, Available, Approachable.
- Active – getting the job done quickly, efficiently, error-free, and in line with the Client’s expectations.
- Available – to the greatest extent possible, become viewed as part of your client’s team.
- Approachable – dealing with all colleagues, clients, and the other side on any transaction with respect and courtesy.
My message to more senior members was Lawyer, Manager, Leader.
- Lawyer – Establish a reputation in the marketplace and with colleagues as someone who is effective and a pleasure to deal with.
- Manager – being an effective manager of time and resources, both yours and your clients.
- Leader – able to lead and motivate a team to deliver the best possible service and outcomes.
AG, or as I knew it Booth & Co., was a significant part of my life and of other members of the Wade family. Long may it prosper…in whatever form, shape or size it takes!
John Pike
Friendship, tradition and the voyage of a career
From £2-a-week work experience to partnership and beyond, John Pike reflects on 50 years of friendship, stewardship and what it means to be part of a firm that treats its people as custodians of its legacy.
1. What is your fondest memory of AG?
The lifetime of friendships my wife Rosemary and I made at the firm. Those friendships are still a big part of our social life today, especially for me the monthly walking group and the quarterly car group.
2. What was AG like when you joined?
My first introduction to Booth & Co. was six months work experience prior to University in 1966, on £2 a week. The firm was then one of the three biggest in Leeds (at a time when no law firm could have more than 20 partners) with 8 partners and around 60 staff. The office opened on Saturday morning and staff were on a rota, once every 4 weeks. All the men wore a formal suit with plain shirt and tie. Trousers for women had not come in yet. Similarly, clients got themselves formally dressed when coming to the office. After 6 months I left with a cheque for £50 and I was offered a training contract after university.
3. What was the best advice you were ever given?
Your career is a bit like sailing across the Atlantic. There are many times when you are racing along with a favourable wind, and everything is great. At other times, you may encounter choppy waters and struggle to make progress. At others, you may be becalmed and may even seem to be going backwards. Yet the vast majority get there in the end so keep at it and enjoy it.
4. What does it mean to you to see the firm celebrating 250 years in Leeds?
A massive amount. Tradition and values are extremely important.
A successful firm is one where the partners regard themselves as custodians of the business and aim to leave a firm which is even more successful. 250 years is testament to that.
Clients like to be associated with that. My wife Rosemary and I attended the 200th anniversary celebration. It was a big deal, and we still remember it. I was pleased and proud to be invited 50 years later.
5. What’s changed most about the firm?
When I retired in 2011, we had 3 offices, all in England. It is hard to believe we were still just Booth& Co. in Leeds until 1997 and now there are 21 AG offices.
AG has grown into a large international law firm in a very short time. However, it is still recognising the importance of celebrating 250 years, and it has a brilliant alumni programme.
It really is the case that when you're out, you're in. I know from speaking to my contemporaries in other Leeds firms that they are envious and applaud what AG does.
6. Do you have a message to trainees joining the firm today?
First, don't arrive with preconceived ideas about where you want to specialise as a solicitor. Academic study and legal practice are very different. Think about what is going to suit you temperamentally. Second, you will learn a massive amount from being in the office, seeing how to handle meetings and difficult phone calls for example. It is also important to make friendships inside the office and start to develop some contacts of your own outside the office.
Lennox Towers
From typewriters to technology: A life in law
From £10-a-week clerk to guiding the firm’s first computer installation, Lennox Towers shares memories of transformation, mentorship and the enduring spirit that has defined AG for generations.
1. What is your fondest memory of AG?
The brilliant colleagues and friends I was fortunate enough to meet and work with during my time here.
2. What was AG like when you joined?
Quite different! When I joined, we were a small but respected six-partner firm with one office above Yorkshire Bank’s Head Office in Leeds. In January 1965, I had a university place to study law but wanted to gain some work experience in a legal firm to see if this was how I wanted to spend my career. The firm took me on as a litigation clerk and to help with their forthcoming office move. In the summer, they offered me a training contract when I completed my degree. I came back, met my wife here, and never left.
3. What was the best advice you were ever given?
Before you send off a contentious letter, pause, and imagine how it will sound being read out in court before a High Court Judge.
4. What does it mean to you to see the firm celebrating 250 years in Leeds?
It brings to mind happy memories of so many people in all areas of the firm who have all, in their own individual way, helped to bring this about.
5. What’s changed most about the firm?
The way law is practised has changed out of all recognition in the last 60 years. Before then, the way law was practised would have been recognisable to lawyers over the previous 200 years. But since then, we have seen electric typewriters, photocopying, telexes and faxes, mobile phones and, of course, computers coming into use.
In 1979, I was put in charge of installing the firm’s first computer and supervising the devising of its software, which had to be purpose written. The computer itself was a large machine which had its own air-conditioned room and a Halon Gas fire suppression system.
What hasn’t changed is the spirit and ethos that bound us together for all those years.
6. Do you have a message to trainees joining the firm today?
As a trainee at AG, you have made a good start to your legal career. From now on, you will have some good fortune, and some less good fortune - we all do. But what you make of your career is largely down to you. All experience you will have is good experience and helps to form you as a lawyer.
Mike Elliker
Lessons from a Legal Director: Honesty, humility and humanity
A Legal Director who helped shape the firm’s culture, Mike Elliker recalls a time of carbon paper, camaraderie and counsel, and the timeless principles that still guide good lawyers today.
1. What is your fondest memory of AG?
My fondest memory of the firm is when, as an articled clerk, the four partners in the Litigation Department of Booth and Co. decided that the firm should sponsor me to do the old Law Society Part Two course. If it had not been for their typical generosity, I could not have gone there, and my career would probably have taken a very different course.
The firm has always looked after its staff.
2. What was AG like when you joined?
I joined Booth and Co. as an articled clerk in 1972. The word ‘trainee’ was unknown. The firm consisted of twelve partners, and the total number of staff was about 70. My salary was £10 per week rising to £12.50 in my second year of articles. Most of the secretaries used noisy heavy manual typewriters, and copies of letters were made using carbon paper. Time recording was unheard of, and all the firm's bills were calculated, prepared and issued by one man who headed the Accounts Department.
3. What was the best advice you were ever given?
The best advice given to all the articled clerks was to be open and honest; that no-one would be punished for making a mistake, only for concealing it.
4. What does it mean to you to see the firm celebrating 250 years in Leeds?
Celebrating 250 years in Leeds obviously brings a keen sense of history and an awareness of just how the legal profession has changed beyond recognition, particularly in the last 50 years where the changes taken together have arguably been greater than in the preceding 200 years.
The firm's values, concerns and ambitions, obviously changing with the times, have clearly been well-founded for it to continue and to be outstandingly successful throughout those years.
5. What’s changed most about the firm?
The changing technologies over the last 50 years were literally unimaginable in 1972. Computers, mobile phones, emails, the internet, video calls and instant world-wide communications were words unheard of at that time. It may also be worth noting that every man in the office was required to wear a suit, and ties were rarely removed.
6. Do you have a message to trainees joining the firm today?
My advice would be:
- Never be overawed. The more noise your opponent makes, the weaker their case is likely to be;
- No matter what the provocation, always be courteous;
- Never put in a letter or email anything you would not be happy to have read out in the Court of Appeal;
- Remember that your client is placing complete trust in you and your skills and always remember that you are a professional adviser and not a hired gun.
Philip Way
Roots, growth and the spirit of togetherness
From articled clerk to seasoned partner, Philip Way recalls the pride of joining a “large professional family” with limitless ambition, the thrill of a career unfolding before him and the enduring culture that still defines AG today.
1. What is your fondest memory of AG?
The pride and excitement that I felt to be an articled clerk in such a great firm with a whole career stretching out before me.
2. What was AG like when you joined?
A large professional family working together to provide the very best advice we could to our clients.
While the focus at the time was largely regional, the ambition was limitless.
3. What was the best advice you were ever given?
Give the best of yourself that you can to every person you meet, and your practice will build.
4. What does it mean to you to see the firm celebrating 250 years in Leeds?
I am very pleased to see a firm which began with Leeds roots flourishing internationally but continuing to prosper in Yorkshire.
5. What’s changed most about the firm?
The scale; happily, as far as I can see, not the culture.
6. Do you have a message to trainees joining the firm today?
Enjoy yourselves. A legal career is not a race. Also, trite but true: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
