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This page tells you about the background of the firm and its overall approach to its work, and the plans for its future. We hope that understanding our ethos will convince you that we are an organisation you can trust and want to work with.
A.Seelhoff Solicitors was established in the Summer of 2009 by the owner and principal Mr Adrian Seelhoff.
The intention was to create a modern firm with a flexible approach to providing legal services but which also retained traditional values. The firm carries the Principal's name because Mr Seelhoff felt it was important that clients and all people dealing with the firm understand who is responsible for its values and accountable for its actions.
A year and a half from being established and the firm is doing well, and is attracting an increasing number of clients based primarily on reputation and referrals from previous clients. The most notable case currently is the case of Constantiou and Others v Cyprus which is back before the European Court of Human Rights concerns historic frauds in Cyprus. We also have a number of cases on the technical issues of retained rights of residence under European Law. The Firm is also maintaining its extensive practice in Immigration and Asylum, and is developing its portfolio of Employment and General Litigation Matters.
Due to a growing amount of Family work and complex Immigration cases which overlap with Family matters the firm recruited a specialist Family Solicitor in May 2011 which will allow it to better handle all areas of family work as well as the most complex of mixed matters relating to childcare. The Firm also now offers mediation services as demand increases for less adversarial methods of resolving disputes.
The Firm has continued to embrace innovation and new ideas where they offer a material benefit and work to our and our client's advantage. This approach is still reflected in this website as we take a different approach to most in terms of providing practical information about how we are regulated, our pricing plans and the formal complaints procedures we have implemented.
Our infrastructure already allows our staff to be fully mobile and offer to visit clients at their own offices, homes, or detention centres where it is economical and practical. We operate a laregly paperless office, and have effective data security to protect us from the unexpected.
We have further plans for the use of technology including web services for established customers that will streamline the approach for instructing us in new matters, pay as you ask web services for new customers, and video conferencing for consultations.
At the same time we remain a local firm as Mr Seelhoff has contacts with a number of businesses in the Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush area as well as living nearby. It is important to us to build on these contacts as well as others across London, the UK and internationally.
Legal Aid and Pro Bono Work
Mr Seelhoff himself has a strong background in legal aid and is very committed to the idea in principle having been very involved in the Defending Legal Aid Campaign in the aftermath of the Carter Review as a representative of a past employer White Ryland Solicitors. Unfortunately in his opinion the system of funding has become overly complicated and underpaid to an extent that he feels it would not be viable for this firm to become involved in legal aid work at this time. It is a sad fact that in the last ten years there have been significant cuts in public funding, and no real increases to reflect rises in inflation, training costs and the technology now needed to hold legal aid contracts. We have a great deal of respect for those firms that persevere with legal aid work and will keep our own position under review with each change in the rules. With regard to Pro Bono or voluntary work, this is a concept we support strongly. Mr Seelhoff has been running free advice surgeries on a monthly basis for the charity Kalayaan since 2005 and we continue to support this and other endeavours. If you are a charity or local community organisation feel free to contact us if you want to discuss making similar arrangements with us. Our PremisesWe have chosen to use serviced offices from Avanta rather than renting traditional shop front space. While this means we do not have shop front advertising space, it means that we have modern and flexible facilities at an affordable price, and the technological infrastructure of a much larger organisation coupled with spectacular views of London.
Our office space is modern and easily accessible to the disabled. We can arrange fully equipped conference facilities on site for up to 16 people given reasonable notice and can provide wireless internet access for visitors to our premises. This facilitates our ability to assist in negotiations, conferences and larger scale business meetings should this be a service you require.
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