About Gaby Hardwicke - award-winning Sussex law firm
Gaby Hardwicke Solicitors is a leading Sussex law firm with offices in Hastings, Bexhill, Cooden and Eastbourne. We are listed by the publishers of the Legal 500 in the top 2% of British law firms and were awarded the title ‘Regional Law Firm of the Year’ for 2011. We provide a wide range of legal services for businesses and individuals, which includes:
- company and commercial law
- conveyancing
- property law
- wills, trusts, probate and lasting powers of attorney
- trade marks
- employment law
- commercial dispute resolution
- corporate finance
- family law
- personal injury.
Our history
Dr Frederick Goodwin founded the firm in Hastings in 1889 and was joined in practice by Ralph Gaby three years later. Goodwin retired from the partnership in 1894 and Gaby continued alone until Allen Hardwicke became a partner after the First World War.
By 1921, under the style ‘Gaby and Hardwicke’, the partners had opened a Bexhill office at 3a Sea Road, almost opposite the railway station. Ralph Gaby died in 1927 and the firm’s name subsequently changed to ‘Gaby, Hardwicke and Evans-Vaughan’, and then ‘Gaby, Hardwicke, Evans-Vaughan and Bubear’, as two new partners joined the fold. In 1940 Evans-Vaughan and Bubear left the practice and Allen Hardwicke continued alone.
The Hastings office closed during the Second World War as several staff members were called into active service. By 1944 the firm had a St Leonards office at 190 Sedlescombe Road North, and its Bexhill office had moved to 2 Eversley Road, where Allen Hardwicke continued to practise until his death in 1965, at age 83. The firm’s partners that year included George Herbert, John (‘Jack’) Baldry and Jethro Arscott.
In 1964 John Midgley, who had joined the firm as an articled clerk in 1958 at age 16, was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court. He would work at Gaby Hardwicke for over 50 years and became Senior Partner upon George Herbert's death in 1986. Mr Midgley's untimely death in 2009 was a great loss to the local community.
During the last few decades Gaby Hardwicke has merged with other, smaller, local firms such as Yearwood & Griffiths, RE Mitchell & Co, Eaton Sagar, Langhams, Temple Bird and Morgan & Lamplugh. We opened our Cooden office in 1978, our Eastbourne headquarters in 1985, and our Hastings office in 1999 on the merger with Eaton Sagar.
Gaby Hardwicke Solicitors today
Today Gaby Hardwicke retains the values of its 19th-century founders Frederick Goodwin and Ralph Gaby, who instilled the pursuit of excellence, a caring approach and the provision of fast, effective legal advice at the core of the firm’s philosophy. However we also pride ourselves on innovation and have stayed at the forefront of new legal developments. In March 2011, for example, Gaby Hardwicke made legal history as the first law firm to serve a court summons via Facebook.
To read what our clients say about our service, take a look at some recent testimonials. If you’d like further details about any aspect of our service, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
(Visit our News section to read about the photo at the top of this page.)
