In the year that Hull-based Hudgell Solicitors is celebrating its 25th anniversary, founder and executive chairman Neil Hudgell insists its mantra today remains exactly the same as it did on day one – and that is the quality behind its continuing success.
“You’ve got to have your client’s back,” he says. “That has been the key ingredient from day one until now. Put the client first, have real empathy and put them at ease.”
It is an approach which has brought repeated rewards and recognition, especially for Neil himself. He was named the Law Society’s Legal Personality of the Year and the Yorkshire Lawyer of the Year in 2021.
“I still like to do a shift,” he says of his recent cases, work which has highlighted and shamed some of Britain’s biggest institutions and been reported upon not only across the UK broadcast and print media, but the entire world. “I try to do the best job I can and get the best outcomes,” he adds.
Leading on cases of huge national significance
In 2021, Hudgell Solicitors was a name constantly in the spotlight as it worked on behalf of clients in cases of huge national significance and profile.
The firm’s casebook included representing clients relating to the Post Office Horizon scandal, the Manchester Arena Inquiry and at inquests into the deaths of four young gay men who were murdered by serial killer Stephen Port, a case made into the ‘Four Lives’ television drama, broadcast by the BBC earlier this month.
‘Righting Wrongs’ has naturally become the company’s call to action, as that has increasingly become the kind of work which has headed the firm’s way.
“I like to get involved in things that are interesting and where we can make a difference, national things that involve big institutions such as The Post Office Horizon scandal and the failures by the Metropolitan Police to stop Stephen Port,” Neil says.
“The inquest into the deaths of the four young men murdered by Port involved big institutions, how they discriminate and how I seek to influence change, where people are marginalised. It’s not a personal indulgence, but a desire to get involved in things that involve a large section of society.
“Had the police done their job properly three of the four men who tragically died need not have. There was clear evidence of unconscious bias, and we became involved because after the criminal trial families wanted answers. It took seven years before we got to the point of the inquests which vindicated the families and their belief that the police did a wholly inadequate job.”
Supporting ‘decent, hard-working people’
Successfully challenging the wrongful convictions of hundreds of former sub-postmasters – people prosecuted by the Post Office over a 15-year period based upon evidence from a faulty accounting system – has brought great acclaim and adoration from clients.
They had their livelihoods taken away from them – some were jailed, others left bankrupt. All reputations were destroyed. So far Neil and his team have helped 58 people to clear their names, with many more to follow the same path to the Court of Appeal, and a Public Inquiry set to begin next month.
Neil is quick to deflect the accolades and says the current position would never have been reached but for the perseverance of a number of “decent, hard-working people”, who continued to ask questions and uncover evidence. As ever, he views it all through his client’s perspective.
“It means a 75-year-old can stop working and relax a little after being treated so badly 20-years-ago after going to prison. That person can now enjoy some comforts and security”.
From council estate to Court of Appeal
Brought up by his grandparents in east Hull in the 1970’s, Neil says their ambition for him was “do your best and find a job through a trade or a scholarship”. His trade was to become the law and ‘doing his best’ has seen him through David and Goliath court cases that have shocked the British public.
“At school I was more committed to sport than to studying, that was the drive rather than education. After leaving school I got a job with no real prospects, but I eventually saw the light and went to night school to get the qualifications I needed,” he said.
“I chose law because I enjoyed those crime programmes on TV. I got good grades and went to Staffordshire Polytechnic to study law. Eventually I qualified and my first job in a private practice was with Max Gold. He was my first mentor.
“He had a few branch offices and I got the opportunity to take them on. It was a take it or leave it situation, and I took it. It was a machine already running with an established bank of work and I inherited 800 clients.”
Neil was determined that Hudgell Solicitors was to stand apart from its competitors, and those first years taught him the importance of client relations, a discipline he instils across his teams now without fail.
“Getting the best for clients has come with a lot of sleepless nights over the past two-and-a-half decades, especially at the beginning,” he said. “It was a job I needed to do, dig in, there were very long days, sometimes from 5am to 11pm with a monstrous amount of work.
“There are still tough times, every night is a sleepless night. It’s a 24/7 job and there’s always something to occupy us. I have an irrational fear that work will dry up tomorrow and I don’t have enough self-discipline to turn my phone off. “
Some team members have been with the firm for 25 years, something he says is partly down to giving them “opportunity and ownership as you grow’. Given the firm’s beginnings, he says it now aims to be a driver of social mobility.
“Having faith, fizz, personality, drive and grafting hard is more important than academic qualifications,” he says when describing the type of people he likes on his team.
“Everyone is an important cog and the people who have stayed with us so long have taken advantage of opportunities. The cultural fit for this business is client first and then result driven people. Maintaining that culture is important.
“I didn’t have role models myself, other than my grandparents, but I was driven by a work ethic and empathy and humility. Run with the knocks don’t be dissuaded.”
Business has expanded and changed – but will always retain its Hull roots
Neil started Hudgell Solicitors 25 years ago this year. In those early days he found a steady stream of building site workers coming through the doors who had been injured on a social housing refurbishment scheme, and it helped set his business on the path of ‘righting wrongs’.
“The claims paid well, and they didn’t take a lot of time, so we made a conscious decision to focus on that and go forward,” he explains
A medical negligence team was soon added, one he describes as doing ‘life-changing stuff’ on a day to day basis. “People can’t walk again or have died and dependents are left behind. It can be rewarding work, as we can help mitigate some of that loss.”
The business model has of course changed. At the beginning he took on all different types of legal work, but over time he has become more pragmatic, “You’ve got to specialise now, you can’t do everything. 25 years ago it was a broad-church,” he says.
Now enjoying success and a national profile, Hudgell Solicitors has a growing presence in the north-west, working from offices in Manchester, yet Neil says his home city of Hull, where its headquarters remain, will always be its “spiritual home” – and that his grandparents would be proud to see his name “above the door”.
“I feel a lot of pride that people know us. Every case and every client are unique, a lot of life-changing stuff has happened to them, and it is our responsibility to unpick that,” he adds.
After a stellar 2021, another big 12 months lie ahead as it brings the start of the Post Office Horizon Public Inquiry, and the conclusion of The Manchester Arena Inquiry, at which families will seek answers as to how their loved ones lost their lives, and how and why the authorities reacted as they did.
“The trauma is just beyond comprehension, children who went to that concert never came home or had life changing injuries,” he says.
It is hugely important work which has become “business as usual”, for a growing team of specialists who have gone from strength to strength.
“My 100% goal at all times is a proper outcome and a satisfied client in every case. So it’s the same approach today in 2022 as it was on day one in 1997,” he concludes.