Hodge Jones & Allen

The firm: Founded in 1977, Hodge Jones & Allen (HJA) care about righting wrongs for their clients and providing first-class personal legal services. One of the UK’s most progressive law firms, with four service areas and one ethos to fight for what’s right.

• Help – Hodge Jones & Allen’s’ frontline legal support for people in distress
• Private – Hodge Jones & Allen’s collection of legal services tailored to help clients navigate complex and often emotionally difficult time in their private lives
• Justice – When injustice reigns, HJA’s human rights, civil liberties and criminal defence legal teams will step forward
• Ethical – Services specifically designed for businesses focusing on balancing purpose with profit

Managing and senior partner, Patrick Allen is a founding member of the firm and a former president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) leads experienced, top-tier teams of solicitors providing legal advice and support in an extensive range of practice areas.

Principal areas of work
Personal injury: Well-known, large specialist team of personal injury lawyers acting only for those negligently injured. A successful record of helping claimants affected by serious/complex injuries, including brain, spinal, amputations and fatalities. Other specialist teams help claimants who have suffered accidents at work, in public places and abroad and all types of Road Traffic Accidents. The team are active supporters of the Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT), Brake road safety charity and Headway.

Medical negligence: Highly experienced team of medical negligence practitioners with a strong reputation for representing claimants with complex matters including birth, brain spinal injuries, sepsis, mental health and helping bereaved families with Inquests. Known for their broad medical knowledge and commitment to first-class client care. The team includes former medical practitioners and nurses.

Criminal defence: Cutting-edge criminal practice regularly representing clients involved in high profile cases, including allegations of murder, terrorism, drugs trafficking and sexual crimes. A team of highly experienced partners –all recognised as leading experts in their particular fields of criminal and protest law.

Family law: Specialist family law team who passionately believe in taking a holistic approach, dealing with private family matters with sensitivity, realism and rigour. They advise high net worth individuals on all areas of family law, including divorce, financial arrangements, civil partnerships, mediation and child arrangements.

Civil liberties and human rights: Renowned for its devotion to helping clients fight for justice, the civil liberties solicitors regularly act in many high-profile cases and claims against the state. Respected for handling inquests and miscarriages of justice Hodge Jones & Allen is known publicly for representing Neville Lawrence (father of Stephen Lawrence), Grenfell Tower residents, Fiona Pilkington’s family and the mother of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah (landmark inquest ruling on air pollution).

Property and social housing: The experienced housing and property practice regularly act for tenants facing evictions, disrepair issues, housing discrimination and homelessness, whilst also advising landlords and home-owners in boundary disputes, leasehold disputes and matters involving restrictive covenants. The specialist team know how to challenge authority decisions via judicial review, most recently challenging the legality of HS2 tunnel approach into Euston.

Private client: Experienced and diligent team provide a full range of private client services, including will writing, estate administration, tax advice and lasting powers of attorney. They specialise in handling complex intestate estates, often acting for high net-worth individuals and those with overseas assets.

Environmental justice: Specialist lawyers providing advice on cases where human rights and environmental law overlap. The team are dedicated to taking on environmental challenges concerning air pollution and climate change. The team acted in a case involving a ground-breaking global first, when air pollution was listed as a cause of death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah.

Dispute resolution: Specialists acting in claims for professional negligence, contentious probate, debt recovery, contract disputes and breach of fiduciary duty. The team have a proven track-record of using their experience and tenacity to secure a favourable outcome for their clients, whether businesses or individuals.

Financial crime and regulatory: The team advise individuals and companies facing the most serious allegations, dealing with a wide range of white-collar criminal and regulatory investigations. They have successfully acted in many complex, high profile cases, including FCA insider dealing, SFO EURIBOR manipulation and bribery allegations and multi-jurisdictional fraud conspiracies. Regulatory matters include FCA action against bankers and MHRA action against healthcare companies.

Industrial disease: A dedicated, highly experienced team of specialist solicitors dedicated to supporting individuals and families affected by exposure to asbestos. APIL-accredited solicitors, known for taking an empathetic approach to their work and a hugely successful track-record in securing compensation. They often act in complex cases, including those where the claimant has passed away or their former employer is no longer trading.

Court of Protection: A highly specialist team acting for clients who lack the mental capacity to manage their own finances. They act as professional deputy and trustee for many vulnerable clients and assist other with personal injury trusts and statutory wills. The team of experienced solicitors provide a personal, compassionate service and pragmatic advice.

Recruitment: Hodge Jones & Allen aims to provide employees with the best working support and environment possible. Previous Lex100 Winners recognised for job satisfaction, quality of work and client contact and signatory to the Race at Work Charter. Each year up to ten candidates are selected to enter the firm’s highly regarded trainee programme.

Senior partner: Patrick Allen
Number of partners: 50
Number of associates: 15
Number of solicitors: 36
Number of other fee-earners: 63
Total: 164
Total staff: 257

Contacts
Medical negligence: Agata Usewicz
Criminal defence: Raj Chada
Family and children: Vanessa Friend
Industrial disease: Isobel Lovett
Housing litigation: Jayesh Kunwardia
Multi-party (PI/med neg): Leticia Williams
Personal injury: Leticia Williams
Dispute resolution: Chun Wong
Financial crime and regulatory: Ruth Harris
Civil liberties and human rights: Susie Labinjoh
Wills, trusts and probate: Nicola Waldman
Deputyship services: Christine Dyson, Patrick Allen
Protest law: Raj Chada, Mike Schwarz
Environmental law and human rights: Jocelyn Cockburn