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Solicitors' Firms Directory Help

The Solicitor's Firms Directory is a comprehensive essential reference source of law firms throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For Scotland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man you should refer to the International Law Firms Directory.

This directory has a range of handy tools to enable you to find the law firm you need with the areas of expertise you need in a convenient location.

Search features

The search page brings up a number of features for you to choose from. Don't forget that if you narrow down your search too much and make selections in every field, you will have a very small number of results to view, possibly none at all. You should also check the spelling of any items that are free text fields (particularly Firm name and Town) as misspellings are common causes of 0 results being returned. Once you have made your selections, click 'Search' or use the Return key on your keyboard. If you want to clear your search and start again for any reason, click on the 'Clear' button. .

Firm Name. You can enter the name of the firm you are looking for or even a part name so that your results return all the firms with that name or with the part name you have selected. For example, entering 'Hamm' will return Bilton Hammond, Hammon Oakley and Hammonds among others in your results, but if you enter Hammonds, the results will list only the various offices of Hammonds plus Hammonds Direct.
Town. This is another free text search field and you can enter a full town name or a part town name. For example, 'Horn' will return not only Hornchurch but all other town which include 'horn' as four consecutive letters, such as Thornton Heath and Crowthorne. For users of the previous version of this website, do not use the wild card* if you are unsure of spelling as this will return 0 results on this site. The part spelling is sufficient on its own. Although we hold over 600 towns in the database, we do not list every village. For example, a search on Littlehaven will return 0 results even if there was a sole trader operating from this seaside Welsh village, but a search on Haverfordwest would include every firm in that part of Pembrokeshire.
Postcode. If you know the full postcode of the firm you are looking for you can enter this. For example EC2Y 9AH you will return the result of one office of Pinsent Masons. Do not enter the postcode of your own office or location to find your nearest firm as you will end up with 0 results. However, if you enter a part postcode, such as EC2, you will return results listing all the law firms in that part of the City of London rather than just one firm.
County/Unitary Authority. This drop-down menu enables you to select the County Council or Unitary Authority of your choice and refine your search further after that if you wish. For example, a search on 'Pembrokeshire' returns not just Haverfordwest, but the other Pembrokeshire major towns such as Milford Haven, Pembroke and Fishguard.
Area of Legal Practice. This drop-down menu enables you to select the particular speciality you are looking for in a law firm. Simply highlight the one that most closely matches your enquiry and your results will return all the law firm that offer that expertise.
Legal Work Schemes. These are particular legal work schemes that law firms have told us they take part in. For example if you were looking for a firm prepared to work on a No Win No Fee basis (very common with Personal Injury and Employment) you would select this item.
Legal Franchise work. Following the recent Legal Aid reforms, they way law firms offered Legal Aid services was changed. The details of these reforms can be found on the Legal Service Commission's Website and this drop down menu indicates what franchises are available from particular firms under the new scheme.
Number of partners. Use the drop down menu to select the size of firm based on the number of parters.
Language. Use the drop down menu to select a firm who have lawyers with the language competency of your choice. For example, a search on Gujarati, will return over 300 firms who are able to deal with clients in Gujariti.
Disabled Access. Check the box if you only want firms with approved Disabled Access in your search results. Just over 600 firms currently offer this facility.

Unitary Authorities

Note that in the UK ,'Unitary Authorities' are English or Welsh local authorities set up by the Local Government Act 1992 which form a single tier of local government and are responsible for almost all local government functions within their areas.This is opposed to the two-tier system of local government which still exists in most of England where local government functions are divided between county councils and district councils. Until 1996 similar two-tier systems existed in Scotland and Wales but these have now been replaced by fully unitary systems.

For further help with checking what town is in what Unitary Authority, click on this downloadable map: www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/downloads/UK_LADUACty.pdf

Understanding Your Search Results

Once you have made your selections and either pressed Return or clicked on 'Search' your results will be returned to you on new screen. Don't forget that if you want to conduct a new search at this point you have to select 'new search'. Your results comprise a number of features to enable you to get the most from your research:

Title of search. Your results will tell you what you have just searched on. For example 'Your search on Bristol, Adoption, revealed 9 record(s).
Number of results displayed. Each screen can accommodate 50 results and to view the whole of your search you need to click on the 'Next' link at the foot of your search page
Order of results. These default to A-Z of Firm Name, listing all the firms who have opted for a Basic Entry in the first A-Z listing. The other firms who have the free entry providing basic contact details are listed after that. You can switch the order to location by clicking 'Location' on your screen. This orders your results in the A-Z order of the Location of the firm.
Colour coding and symbols. The alternating shaded blue stripes enclose the firms who have opted for a Basic Entry where you can click through to their full details. You can do this by clicking on the highlighted Firm Name or on any of the symbols on the right of your screen denoting Map, Email and Weblink.
Branch/Head Office. Your results indicate whether the firm name in your results is a Branch or Head Office. You can access other branches of that firm from their full entry (if they have one)
Printing your results. Each screen of results can be printed by clicking on the Print button or using CtrlP on your keyboard. You should not be compiling databases from these results (see our Terms & Conditions), and if you were interested in renting Waterlow Solicitors lists, click onto Waterlow Direct Marketing.
Add/Edit Your entry. If you have searched for your own firm or a particular law firm you know is in operation but has not appeared on this website, please click on this button to provide with details so that we can include the firm, subject to our usual verification process. If your firm does come up on your search results but only basic information with no map is appearing in your profile page, you may wish to opt for a Basic Entry to add in the missing information. Full details of options can also be viewed on our Classified Advertising pages.

Refine Your Search

You can refine your search, retaining all the search criteria you have just selected by clicking on the Refine button situated on the top left side of your results page. For example, if your search results are bringing up all the law firms in Reading came to 60 or so records and you wanted to refine this by finding out how many offered Employment Law as an area of expertise, you can add this into your search screen and search again. You should have around 30 results now.

Contact Us

For further help with your search or search results, please contact us.