Ashtons Legal

About the law firm

Ashtons Legal is an award-winning law firm with a strong focus on customer service. The legal teams provide a wide range of advice to businesses and private individuals regionally, nationally and internationally from offices across East Anglia.

We are one of the largest law firms in the region with offices in Ipswich, Cambridge, Norwich and Bury St Edmunds. We are a broad service firm which employs around 380 people. Our service lines are divided into three main client groups: business, individual and those with injury services. Our annual turnover of £19m is broadly derived in equal proportions from these three groups. The firm has 35 partners and 160+ lawyers.

Ashtons Legal has specialist lawyers ready to help clients with:

• agriculture and estates, commercial property, corporate and commercial services, construction, dispute resolution, employment law, franchising, HR advice, GDPR and data protection compliance, and transport and regulatory matters
• family law and mediation, private client matters including Wills, powers of attorney, probate and tax and trusts, residential conveyancing, French legal services and inheritance disputes
• medical negligence, personal injury and industrial disease claims, and Court of Protection advice.

The firm has various niche sectors in which it is particularly strong; these include agricultural businesses, care homes, the food and drink sector, university colleges and the road transport sector. Ashtons Legal has been recognised by the Legal 500 and Chambers UK Guide to the Legal Profession for over 20 years. In 2019 the firm had 25 ‘leading individuals’ listed by the Legal 500, the firm’s highest achievement to date. L500 has quoted sources saying Ashtons 'provides a better service than most larger national firms and is a delight to work with’. The firm has also started to gain a reputation in the regional legal markets for doing things a little differently. CEO Edward O’Rourke is frequently asked to contribute articles to national legal practice management journals, usually on the topic of change within the profession and with a focus on employee engagement and retention. The firm’s Paid Time Off Policy has been well received within the firm and outside it. Continuing to build on this with a flexible and agile approach is a priority for the management team.