No. of offices 4 Date founded 1889 Headquarters Eastbourne Company type Partnership | No. of lawyers 80 Founder Dr Frederick Goodwin Founded 1889 Number of offices 4 | |
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Major practice areas Business law, Family law Profiles | ||
Gaby hardwicke solicitors lawyers in hastings bexhill eastbourne east sussex
Gaby Hardwicke Solicitors is a law firm in East Sussex, England. It provides business and family law services and has offices in Hastings, Bexhill-on-Sea, Cooden and Eastbourne, East Sussex.
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In March 2011, Gaby Hardwicke were the first British law firm to serve a court summons via Facebook. The firm was awarded the title 'Regional Law Firm of the Year' for 2011 by the publishers and readers of Finance Monthly.
History
The firm was founded in 1889 by Dr Frederick Goodwin, a former Gladstonian candidate for Bury St Edmunds, who three years later was joined in practice by Ralph Hale Gaby. Goodwin left the partnership in 1894, most probably due to ill health (he died in 1897 of heart disease), leaving Gaby to continue alone.
After the First World War Gaby was joined in partnership by Herbert Junius Allen Hardwicke (known as 'Allen' Hardwicke), son of the physician Herbert Junius Hardwicke. By 1921, the firm was known as 'Gaby and Hardwicke' and had opened an office in Bexhill-on-Sea. Following Ralph Gaby's death in 1927, the firm's title briefly changed to 'Gaby, Hardwicke and Evans-Vaughan', then to 'Gaby, Hardwicke, Evans-Vaughan and Bubear', as it acquired new partners.
In 1940, Evans-Vaughan and Bubear left the partnership and Allen Hardwicke continued in practice alone. He was joined by other partners, including J. M Baldry, G. G. Herbert and A. J. Arscott, and was still practising law at the time of his death at age 83 in 1965.
Gaby Hardwicke Solicitors has expanded considerably during the last four decades and has merged with several smaller local firms, including Yearwood & Griffiths, RE Mitchell & Co, Eaton Sagar, Langhams, Temple Bird and Morgan & Lamplugh. Its Cooden office opened in 1978, its Eastbourne headquarters in 1985, and its Hastings office in 1999 upon the merger with Eaton Sagar.