Profile: James Haddleton

DWF will be a ‘strong consolidator’ at a time of change in the legal sector, according to James Haddleton. He met Deputy Business Editor Greg Wright.

ON a cold night in 1998, a bus stop in a Yorkshire village hosted an unlikely meeting of legal minds.

The outcome of these deliberations led to a chase around Venice’s canals. At the heart of this pursuit was a story of folly and betrayal.

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The case also provided James Haddleton with an insight into the private anguish that lurks behind many legal disputes. Today, as executive partner at DWF’s Leeds office – and the newly-crowned Yorkshire Lawyer of the Year – he’s overseeing the growth of a firm that has a ‘helicopter’ view of Leeds from its lofty home in the Bridgewater Place skyscraper.

But his mind still goes back to that strange clandestine meeting in a Yorkshire village, when he was working as a litigation partner at DLA Piper. The catalyst was a fraught phone call, which told him that a director had stolen a vast sum from one of his clients.

“By 11pm client, lawyers and accountants were huddled in a bus shelter in a North Yorkshire village, deep in conference, before seeing the judge at his house,” Mr Haddleton recalled. “The bleary eyed villagers leaving the pub could make no more sense of the suits in their bus shelter than the cows in the field opposite.”

The judge, who seems to have been happy to hold court at home, gave an order to freeze the director’s assets.

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“We then spent the whole weekend chasing our man over the north of England,” Mr Haddleton said. “However, he had slipped the net and escaped to Venice, where, unfortunately, he was not in a good way. We had to board the next plane within two hours of getting this news.

“On arrival, we hurried through the Venice canals, found the hospital and our man.”

The man was eventually restored to health, and Interpol brought him back to Britain, and a heavy prison sentence. He had frittered away a lot of the money but had managed to endow himself with a lordship and a chunk of property in his local manor, including a hotel, which was sold off to recover some of the proceeds. It’s a ripping yarn, but as Mr Haddleton is quick to point out, there’s a tragedy at its core.

“The man’s family knew nothing of his deceit,’’ he said. “In a few short months, their lives had been changed irrevocably for the worse. A home lost, a father in jail and a marriage broken.”

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Mr Haddleton abhors social injustice and believes education can be a great liberator. During his recent stint as President of Leeds Law Society, he was heartened to find that so many lawyers have an active social conscience. He’s a big supporter of Leeds Ahead – an organisation that helps to stimulate economic growth in deprived parts of the city.

He added: “In my family, it took 110 years between my great-great grandfather working as a glass blower and me being the first Haddleton to go to university. You can see the progression among my antecedents through the male line: from glassblower to manager of a cycle shop; then to sales manager at the Riley Motor Company and on to my father, who left school at 16 and worked his way up to become a chartered accountant.”

But why should advancement take generations? Recently, he was stunned to discover that children living less than three miles from DWF’s office had never set foot in Leeds city centre.

He added: “It is hard for most of us to fathom. With the help of their teachers, we got the children to visit our offices. We also invited one of the civil court judges along, who brought his wigs and gowns. At the end of it we asked the children what they had enjoyed most.”

The children cried: “The Porsches in the car park.”

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Mr Haddleton recalled: “After explaining that they belonged to an accountancy firm, I realised that it didn’t matter what image of the profession they held, provided it was positive one.”

According to Mr Haddleton, the legal profession has moved forward over the last 30 years. There are more women and people from ethnic minority groups entering the profession.

“But for me the single most discriminatory and determinative factor is which side of the tracks you are born on,’’ he said.

His own legal journey began in 1986, when he headed to Leeds University to study law.

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“The late eighties were buzzing and I recall enjoying my time at Leeds University, with no real consideration that my degree would lead to anything other than me becoming a solicitor,’’ he said.

“I had always planned one year off after Chester Law College travelling the world, but when I came back the recession was in full swing and my firm offered me a princely sum to stay away for another year. Being paid not to practise law seemed to me to be the ideal career choice, and I enjoyed another year improving my German behind the bar of a Swiss hotel and translating veterinary documents from French to English for a large concern in Lyon.”

He’s witnessed revolutionary changes over the last two decades, as the legal profession became more competitive and the internet blew the lid off antiquated communication systems.

“Although hard to believe now, in 1994 we had not long come out of the period where solicitors were not allowed to advertise; the local law society was still the place to go to research case law and trainees still opened the post in the post room where they discovered, improved and recirculated the gossip,” he said.

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“Nowadays, I still tap up the trainees if I want to know what’s really going on, but they have come out of the post room and have startlingly well-structured and interesting career plans.

“There used to be a boast in the 1990s that Yorkshire had more listed plc clients than anywhere outside London, but when Asda was bought by (US-based) Walmart, it confirmed what most people already knew. The globalisation of markets meant commercial law firms had to compete more widely for their work; and they have done that well, by and large.”

After spending 15 years as a partner at DLA, he joined DWF in 2008, as the firm’s Leeds office geared up for expansion. In five years, DWF’s Leeds operation has grown from 55 staff to just under 230.

“There is no predetermined limit to our ambition in Leeds, we will grow to whatever size our clients require and will always look to service the majority of their needs locally,’’ he said. “DWF will not stand still, and it is well known that we see mergers and more lateral hires as desirable, provided there is a clear client need. We have carried out three mergers in the last year alone. In some sectors, such as insurance, consolidation of law firms is occurring and we are seen as a strong consolidator.”

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Not every planned merger has come off. In January, it was revealed that DWF and Cobbetts had ended merger talks because of the uncertain market conditions. But Mr Haddleton sees no end in sight to the forces driving the legal sector towards consolidation. Ten years from now, he believes there will be fewer law firms, and some services, such as will-writing will be carried out by specialists outside the mainstream legal sector.

“There will be far greater emphasis on aligning the internal business model of law firms with market sectors,” he said.

Thirty years ago, much of Yorkshire’s legal work revolved around the textile trade. Within a few years, most of the giant textile mills had fallen silent.

“After textiles came the boom in the financial services sector, which will continue on a different, reduced scale,’’ said Mr Haddleton. “Another industry sector will rise up to take its place. Firms will adapt, as history shows.”

Factfile

Name: James Haddleton

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Title: The Executive Partner of the Leeds office at law firm DWF. He’s also the Yorkshire Lawyer of the Year.

Date of birth: November 28, 1967

First job: I worked as a paper boy.

Education: King Edward VI School in Birmingham and Leeds University.

Last book read: Snow Drops by A D Miller

Favourite song: Times they are a changin’ by Bob Dylan

Favourite holiday destination: Treyarnon Bay in Cornwall

Car driven: Volvo XC90 (134,000 miles and still going nicely)

What achievement are you most proud of? Bringing out a smile