Lime Solicitors—Hudgell Solicitors

Hudgell Solicitors’ London-based personal injury, clinical negligence and abuse claims teams transferred to Lime Solicitors as Legal 500 firms reshape businesses for future growth. 

Lime Solicitors has further cemented its presence in the South with the transfer of Hudgell Solicitors’ London personal injury, clinical negligence and abuse claims team - tripling the consumer specialist law firm’s London team with 17 new additions.  

The deal forms part of a long-term growth strategy for Lime Solicitors, boosting its clinical negligence and personal injury teams while also expanding its client service offering into the abuse claimant market, following on from a recent move into claimant employment work.  

This opportunity for Lime arose following Hudgell Solicitors’ decision to reorganise its business following efficiencies as a mix of office and home-based working over the past 12 months has proved successful. 

Hudgells will continue to operate a national service with its core work now managed from operational hubs in Hull and Manchester, whilst continuing to develop a streamlined London presence for its civil liberties and human rights work. 

Mark Beesley, managing director of Lime Solicitors, says he is delighted with the expertise added to the firm. 'The most important thing for us during this transition is the continuity of service for our clients and new colleagues,' he said.

'Adding abuse claims to our growing service portfolio speaks to the existing strength, depth and quality of work we offer through our serious personal injury and clinical negligence work. It’s also another work stream that reinforces our positioning as a consumer champion law firm. 

'The London team at Hudgell Solicitors are leaders in their field, demonstrated by their exceptional five-star client reviews, which mirror our own. I’m really pleased to welcome our new colleagues and excited to see them continue delivering their high standards of work within Lime Solicitors.'

Rachel Di Clemente, chief executive of Hudgell Solicitors, explained the decision to transfer its current London-based personal injury, clinical negligence and abuse teams had been influenced by the shift towards remote working, and to ensure minimum disruption and continued excellent legal support for clients. 

'This has of course led to us reassessing how we work across the business, with a focus at all times on ensuring that, whatever decision was taken, our clients would suffer minimum disruption.  

'We considered the option of full remote working for our London team but ultimately felt their strength was in part the relationships and support between them as colleagues. It was important to us that the team stayed together so clients would benefit from continuity and we are delighted that the result has been the agreement to transfer our London clinical negligence, personal injury and abuse staff to Lime Solicitors. 

'They are a well-established and highly regarded firm. We are confident their ethos and values mirror that of our own and will be a good fit for our people.  It means the team will stay together and our clients will be able to continue to benefit from the relationships already established.  

'We will continue to maintain a national presence for our clinical negligence and personal injury work, which will be managed from our operational hubs in Hull and Manchester.   

'We will be investing into growth from these two hubs alongside developing our London presence for civil liberties and human rights work, which we feel will benefit from having a continued presence in London at our Fleet Street offices.'

There will be no redundancies made as a result of the team acquisition. Lime Solicitors is proactively seeking mergers, acquisitions, team recruitment and lateral hires.