40 | Tees Business
Picture by Martin Walker
Punch Robson managing
partner Elaine McLaine-
Wood and senior partner
John Wilkin.
LEGALS
FLYING
Tees Business co-
editor Martin Walker
meets the 142-year-old
Tees law firm which is
embracing a modern
approach…
P
unch Robson Solicitors is one of the
region’s longest-established law firms
– but it’s adopting a more modern
outlook to business.
Formed in 1877, a year after
Middlesbrough FC, Punch Robson is a
traditional mixed-practice high street law
firm which now offers legal services in five
core areas.
With offices in Stockton and
Middlesbrough, the firm’s extensive
services cover employment and corporate
law, conveyancing, divorce and family law,
mental health, disputes, wills and probate
and personal injury.
Managing partner Elaine McLaine-
Wood says that while the firm’s partners
are rightly proud of its rich history, Punch
Robson is now firmly looking to the future.
“A lot of changes were needed in recent
years,” says McLaine-Wood, a well-known
figure in the Tees business community who
heads up Punch Robson’s corporate and
commercial department.
“Our firm is 142-years-old, so we’ve been
around a long, long time with our roots very
much on Teesside.
“But we were quite an old-fashioned,
traditional law firm. We needed to identify
where we wanted to be and be more slick
in our approach. Lawyers tend to be good
at the legals, but not necessarily good at
running a business.
“We’ve improved various sides to the
business, our own efficiencies and making
sure our services are better, and now we’re
focusing on growth.”
Punch Robson, with its head office
in Ingleby Barwick and another office in
Coulby Newham, offers business services
covering commercial property, corporate
and commercial, disputes and employment
law.
It also deals with start-ups, assisting with
producing bespoke company articles of
association and constitutions, shareholders’
agreements, and assisting with partnership
protection and shareholders’ protection.