Results for Howe + Co Solicitors:
Howe + Co Solicitors in Brentford, London:
If you've been searching for a law firm for a while already today, you'll have seen the majority have very similar sounding sales pitches. Many of their websites even look the same with photos of people in smart suits smiling and pointing at a computer screen or shaking hands. It can be quite difficult to dig out the pertinent details in order to make what feels like an informed decision.
Luckily there are many resources available on the web for some independent backchecks and information. Often those little badges at the bottom of law firm's pages aren't just for show either. Hopefully we can point you in the direction of some universal ways to get to know a firm better before making your call.
Unfortunately the word 'leading' can be used to mean a variety of things such as the best firm, or simply a firm that pushes forward. But certainly Howe & Co are well-known with several high profile news articles quoting them including this one about their defence of abuse victims and this more famous one regarding their involvement with Gurkhas. If you scroll down to the bottom of most pages on their website you'll also see a short list of awards they have won and been nominated for.
One thing you rarely see in relation to UK law firms is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to them. Howe & Co have one detailing some of their more high profile cases and some of the firm's background. They have over 100 staff, cover a wide range of legal matters, and a long history. All that put together clearly makes them a very established firm and it's hard to deny them the use of the word 'leading' with all that in mind.
These sort of claims on the websites of legal practices are far easier to check up on. The majority of lawyers and law firms in the UK are registered with a local Law Society either at the national, county, or sometimes town level. Howe & Co are registered with The Law Society of England & Wales which is a great resource offering a huge amount of information to users. If you check out the pages for this firm you can see contact details, confirmed areas of practice, specialist accreditations, staff details, and more.
You can even see qualification dates of the lawyers working at the firm. Howe & Co seem to have solicitors from every decade of their history including Martin Howe (qualified in 1983), Mark Collins (1991), Nicole Bowler (2003), right up to Charlie Rose in 2019. A wide range of very seasoned, experienced practitioners alongside plenty of young blood to keep things fresh and moving forward. Certainly the kind of range you'd like to see at any law practice.
Again something very easy to check up on, however care should always be taken when browsing through comments left by people online. For a start, when we entered Howe & Co Solicitors into a search there were three other firms with similar names that popped up as well. This can sometimes end up in reviews about the wrong firm being placed. So it's always best to actually read the comments themselves and company responses if available rather than just flicking through star ratings.
"we're grateful, you are our life saver"
"reception are always calm & on hand to help"
"go above and beyond to ensure they provide professional service"
The majority of reviews we read were like these, very positive about the firm. Gushingly so on occasions, as I'm guessing they were in relation to situations such as immigration where people can feel literally in the middle of life/death struggles. One of our staff worked in immigration (Liverpool) for about a year and confirms it can be a very emotionally strenous environment, and that's just for the workers. Let alone the actual people trying to get in.
The firm did have testimonials on their website as well but at the time of us viewing they were stuffed into a tiny video-style playback box near the bottom of pages. And by tiny, we mean absolutely unreadable. Although according to our poll a couple of years ago, most people don't trust or at least don't pay attention to a company's own testimonial page anyway. The snippets above were from the usual third party boards such as Google, Yell.com, Yelp and Trustpilot.
A quick note on navigation as was mentioned before - there are other legal companies with Howe in the name. The official website we link to above is www.howe.co.uk, with www.howe.com taking you to a design company in the USA. Other companies such as John Howe & Co Solicitors are using www.jhowe.co.uk, and The Howe Practice have www.thehowepractice.co.uk so it's probably a good idea to bookmark the correct site once you're on it just to be sure.
There are hundreds of reports of people being scammed into handing over money that was meant to go to their solicitor. One of the few areas of law Howe & Co don't actually handle though is Conveyancing, which is the most common legal area facing fraudsters at the moment. But you never know what their going to do next. So with so many variants such as www.howeandco.com being available and www.howeandco.co.uk being owned by someone else - make sure you're on the right website and never discuss payments or bank details via email. One last quote from the firm's site:
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General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with Howe + Co Solicitors it's best to visit the website (www.howe.co.uk) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as Howe and Co Solicitors may bring up different background/reviews on the firm. Each firm's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site too.