Chief Executive Paul Keeling- Partners: 14
- Assistants: 21
- Other fee-earners: 20
The Firm Stones is a full-service firm highly focused on its local markets taking particular care to ensure that it understands the needs of its clients and the markets in which they operate. The emphasis is very much on building long-term relationships.
The firm has a strong Commercial Property Team dealing with a wide range of issues on behalf of landlords, tenants and institutional funders in relation both to the purchasing and leasing of individual units, and the acquisition and management of substantial business parks.
The Company Commercial Team advises a broad spectrum of clients from multi-million pound companies to smaller owner-managed businesses, providing advice not only on their legal needs but also on other issues central to their business strategy
The Development Land and Planning Team has seen significant recent growth and acts for developers, landowners and house builders both locally and regionally.
The firm's Social Housing Team has a national reputation for providing a broad spectrum of advice to its diverse Registered Social Landlord client base, and has recently been successful in winning a number of major tenders in this field.
The Employment Team continues to expand having attracted a number of large businesses and public sector employers through its insurance backed BOLDER advice scheme.
The firm has an outstanding reputation for national and international travel claims with a large and expanding team acting for an impressive number of major travel insurers and dealing with claims on a worldwide basis.
Litigation and dispute resolution services remain an integral part of the firm's activities, providing advice on most contractual disputes as well as specific expertise in the areas of professional negligence, disputed wills and land related disputes.
The Okehampton office of Stones is developing as a centre of excellence for the firm's expanding agricultural client base, as well as providing all round advice to the local community.
Private client services include advice from experts in the fields of family childcare issues and personal injury claims.
The Residential Property Team caters for private clients wanting a bespoke service for property acquisitions both for owner occupation and in the buy-to-let market.
The firm has a large specialist team advising its well established client base on wills, trusts, personal taxation and all aspects of advice to the elderly. Once again the team focuses its attention on the specific needs of individual clients to provide tailor-made solutions.
Stones is delighted to have retained Lexcel accreditation for the 8th year running, and with its continued investment in HR and ICT, as well as a careful identification and management of risk, the business is well placed to meet the changes in the legal landscape.