About Us
Our Journey
The FIRSTLAW partnership is a name we chose to describe our company which was formed of a number of different legal firms and a range of legal services. We are a partnership in that we fuse together legal practices and legal disciplines. We are a partnership in that we combine the two branches of the profession to allow solicitors and barristers to work side by side within the same organisation.
The FIRSTLAW partnership was formed when First Defence Solicitors, a large criminal and prison law firm in Bedford, Northampton and Wellingborough, expanded into Reading, Borehamwood and Luton, to provide a regional legal service ‘par excellence’ across Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire.
We are product of the merger of the firms previously known as First Defence and Freedman Sharman Solicitors. Around the same time First Defence Solicitors acquired the practice of Reading sole practitioner Martin Jackson and employed criminal lawyers from the Reading firm known as Criminal Law Associates (CLA). We also took over the criminal defence practice of Williams and Co of Luton.
First Defence Solicitors expanded beyond its renowned criminal defence practice to provide teams of solicitors offering road traffic law, family law, immigration law, licencing law, conveyancing and regulatory law services.
The FIRSTLAW partnership barristers, solicitor advocates, litigators and police station representatives deal with defendants with cases which range from technical motoring defences to complex frauds; from trials in magistrates’ courts to appeals in the Court of Appeal. In the Crown Court our criminal lawyers defend in the full range of cases from those accused of violent crimes to those charged with conspiracy to supply drugs.
Whether you need a divorce or help to bring a family member to the UK; whether you want to buy or sell a house or to obtain a liquor license, our lawyers can help.
The FIRSTLAW partnership has a legal aid franchise, but for those who are not eligible we offer competitive rate fees.
