The Legal 500

This leading Midlands, South Yorkshire and North Eastern firm provides business and criminal defence services, including fraud and regulatory law (health and safety, environmental, trading standards and professional discipline). The firm also specialises in family and childcare law, mental health, road traffic, private and commercial immigration matters, and prison law.

The firm: Cartwright King was established in 2000 by the demerger of the business defence and criminal defence departments of Freeth Cartwright, one of the largest firms in the Midlands. Now operating from Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leicester, Derby and Newcastle Gateshead, and having achieved a high profile, this expanding firm attracts work and lawyers of the highest calibre. It remains a primarily common law firm committed to legal aid and has an influential role as one of the top criminal legal aid firms in the country.

The firm has seen continuous expansion, with the opening of the Leicester office in 2004, the merger with the business and criminal defence departments of Nelson’s solicitors in 2006 which doubled the size of the firm and established the Derby office, the merger with the King Street Partnership in Leicester and the opening of the Sheffield office in 2007. 2008 saw the firm merge with the specialist criminal defence firm of Lumb & Co in Derby. In 2009 the Birmingham office opened and is headed by David Roy. David joined from the leading Birmingham criminal firm of Jonas Roy Bloom. In 2010 he was joined by the fraud team from Jonas Roy Bloom and the criminal defence team from Williamson and Soden. The Sheffield office enjoyed further expansion when the entire business defence team from Ashton Morton Slack joined Cartwright King. Also in 2010 Cartwright King established a family and childcare department following the merger with Jerman Hollingsworth and Co of Leicester. In 2011 Cartwright King opened a Newcastle office dealing with business defence, professional discipline and motoring law.

The higher courts department is now well established, with six barristers and 18 HCAs undertaking most of the Crown Court work of the firm and able to offer advice and representation from the police station to the Crown Court. The firm now has 25 partners and 76 lawyers and has contracts from the Legal Services Commission in all five offices.

Types of work undertaken: Fraud, from the serious and complex to minor transgressions, is a notable area of expertise. Services include representation of directors and professionals on charges such as theft, false accounting, money laundering and confiscation, as well as Serious Fraud Office cases. Overseas matters and consultancy to commercial victims of fraud are other areas of expertise. The firm is recognised for its tax and other financial investigations, including those brought by HMRC, BIS, OFT and others.

The health and safety expertise covers fatal accidents and major incidents, improvement notices, regulation breaches, food safety, etc. The firm has particular expertise and experience with the construction industry. Environmental work includes investigations and prosecutions, including pollution, waste, abatement notices and appeals, and planning breaches. Trading standards cases of all types, including trades descriptions, product safety, misleading prices and advertising, trade marks and copyright, consumer credit and animal welfare, are areas of particular expertise.

Road traffic is a growth area for the firm, which has a specialist team to deal with challenging speeding convictions, avoiding disqualification, penalty points topping up and other exceptional cases. Criminal defence work covers the whole spectrum but with particular expertise in heavy duty crime, including drugs, murder, conspiracy, etc. Computer and downloading offences are a speciality. Public law childcare work is a specialism of the firm, along with private family work. Mental health has seen a significant growth in the year, with teams now covering the East Midlands, the West Midlands and South Yorkshire. Private immigration work for both individuals and companies continues to be a growing area of work undertaken by dedicated specialist solicitors.

Cartwright King continues to expand its geographical area of operation and the size of its fraud and regulatory practice. The firm is committed to continue to offer legal aid through its specialist criminal defence and business defence teams as the current legal aid reforms continue.

Other offices: Birmingham, Leicester, Derby, Sheffield, Newcastle Gateshead

Breakdown of work %
Fraud and regulatory 35
Criminal defence 30
Higher court advocates 15
Family 5
Mental health 10
Immigration 5

Number of UK partners 25
Number of other UK fee-earners 76