Choosing the right lawyer can be tough. In England and Wales, there are over 215,000 solicitors working for over 9,000 law firms. Where do you even begin?
If you want experienced lawyers, who are true construction and engineering specialists but charge much less than their competitors in the City of London, then Hamshaw might be the right law firm for you.
Click here to contact Hamshaw and discuss whether we can help, or scroll down to learn why we are different.
Expertise
If you need help with a construction, engineering, or property-related legal issue, then you need a lawyer that really specializes in these areas of law.
Lots of law firms will tell you that they practise construction law, but if you look carefully at their websites you’ll see that they also practise lots of other types of law. Can they really be specialists in so many different areas of law at the same time? Probably not.
Hamshaw’s lawyers only practise construction, engineering, and property-related law.
Experience
Aside from expertise, another consideration is experience. You don’t want to end up with a lawyer who is inexperienced and can’t help you efficiently navigate common problems because they’ve not come across them before.
Lots of law firms will tell you that an experienced lawyer will be looking after your case, but behind the scenes it will be the very junior lawyers in their team doing the day-to-day work simply because it’s cheaper for the law firm to employ more junior people than experienced people.
The core Hamshaw team only comprises senior lawyers, and - very importantly - those lawyers will be the ones working on your case. Any lawyers that are added to the team to assist with your case will be choosen specifically because their expertise and experience is appropriate.
Of course, experience is not just about how many years you have under your belt. It’s also about what you’ve been doing during those years.
Again, looking closely at other law firm websites can reveal that even senior construction lawyers only have experience of relatively small, low value, and straightforward cases. Some website do not even describe the experience their lawyers have, except in the vaguest of ways.
Hamshaw’s lawyers have worked on some of the largest, most complex, and highest-value construction disputes in the world. They have represented governments, royal families, and international oil companies, including the most valuable listed company in the world. They have dealt with disputes worth billions of pounds.
Value for Money
Finally, there’s cost. All lawyers are expensive, but it’s not always the case that you get what you pay for. Some law firms in the City of London will charge upwards of £1,000 per hour for their senior construction lawyers.
Hamshaw’s core team of lawyers used to work at those firms in the City of London, but Hamshaw charges a lot less. Having left behind the marble receptions, fancy high-rise offices, and expensive art installations that many high-end law firms have, Hamshaw can provide the same quality of lawyers but at reasonable cost, because we don’t have to pass on ridiculous overheads to our clients.