Home Appointments & Contracts 300 Year Old Solicitor Practice Invests For Business

300 Year Old Solicitor Practice Invests For Business

Gibson & Co. Solicitors Limited, a firm of solicitors with offices in Newcastle and Hexham, has placed its trust in Andrew Marsh to help with its strategic management and to build future resilience.

The oldest continuously family run legal firm in the country, Gibson & Co. boasts over 300 years of legal heritage, traditionally specialising in conveyancing, trusts, wills and probate matters. The Hexham office has a particular speciality in agricultural matters and in 2003, the Newcastle office set up a niche litigation practice, which has become a leading force in the region.

Partner, Jane Gibson, recognised that while the firm’s strength was in its handling of clients and their cases, there was a danger of losing focus on running the business itself, particularly as the firm expanded.

To ensure the ongoing health and longevity of the firm, the decision was made to bring in Andrew Marsh, Vistage Chair and owner of Marsh Business Transformation. Andrew has been working closely with Jane looking at management, structure, forecasting and staff resilience in conjunction with the senior leadership team.


The senior team were well prepared by Andrew to weather the COVID-19 storm, following a mastermind course which he held just before lockdown, that strengthened the organisation. The firm has fared well during the period, managing to keep both offices open to clients, whilst dealing with a number of staff and management issues during these challenging times.

Jane, who has also invested in membership at Vistage as part of her strategy to strengthen the performance of the firm from the inside out, said:

“Gibson & Co. is well known for its client care, producing top quality work for top quality clients. The 300 year heritage of the firm, which still has three family members as active partners in the firm, as well as an outstanding and successful team of 25, speaks volumes.

“However, times are changing and for a firm to be resilient, it needs to be agile and to have structures in place. The legal industry isn’t always known for its strength on the strategic front and we wanted to try and change that.

“By bringing Andrew in and taking Vistage membership, we are looking forward and investing in the future. Andrew’s help has allowed us to focus on strategy, keeping our concentration on quality work at the forefront of our vision, but adapting it to changing times.

“Working with the other members of Andrew’s Vistage group has allowed me to source ideas on how to tend to the parts of our business plan that needed support. I also really enjoy learning from and hopefully in turn helping the other members who are involved with different business models and sectors than my own.”

Andrew, who has a successful history of guiding businesses to growth and success through leadership support, following a successful career of running multi-million pound companies, said:

“Gibson & Co. has a successful and enviable history as legal experts. However to rely on that alone in the current economic and challenging environment would not have been enough.

“Jane’s forward thinking, open mindedness and personal ambition is impacting on the organisation positively, so it becomes a focused and well run business in the region, as well as leading the legal field.”