Chesterfield solicitors celebrate 25 years in the town centre

The business marked the milestone with an evening of drinks and canapes was hosted at Chesterfield Football Club’s SMH Group stadium. It was attended by staff, the Lord Mayor and other local dignitaries, members of the community trust and charities and client representatives.

Graysons solicitors was first established in Sheffield by Robert Grayson in 1925.

In the mid-90s, managing partner at Graysons, Peter Clark started working closely with Derbyshire’s Unemployed Workers Centre and with trade unions representing injured, former miners from the region. During this period, Peter and the team dealt with over 15,000 claims.

Peter said: “One of the successes of this was bringing a lot of money into the local economy with the damages the miners recovered under the government compensation schemes.

“So that was a really big thing for us, that established us in the town. On the back of that, we ended up with a good client base that came to us for other things.”

This led to Graysons setting up their Chesterfield branch, moving into a small set of offices at 100 Saltergate in 1999.

Since then, Graysons has been offering the people of Chesterfield and North Derbyshire legal services such as property, family law, lifetime planning, wills, estates and trusts, elderly client services, personal injury and clinical negligence.

Peter said: “It’s very much a personal service. The nature of the work that we do is legal services for individuals. We do try to get to know our clients.

“We don’t want to act for them just once. We want them to have an attachment to the firm themselves and for their own families, and to come back to us when they need something.”

Other than their legal work, Graysons has aimed to maintain a very active interest in the local community, supporting organisations and charities from the local area.

Since moving to the town they have been a sponsor and an active supporter of Chesterfield Football Club.

In more recent years, they have been supporting Ashgate Hospice, raising money for them at numerous charity events. For the past three years, Graysons has also been a sponsor for the Hospices ‘Forget Me Not’ campaign. The campaign allows people to make a donation of £25 for a custom-made, beautifully crafted forget-me-not flower, to pay a lasting tribute to friends and family. A scheme which Peter said Graysons are proud to be a sponsor of.

Something else that has created an enduring connection between Graysons and the region has been their work with the Derbyshire asbestos support team, Dast. Working alongside the charity, Graysons industrial disease service provides free advice to families and individuals who are affected by asbestosis.

Peter described these connections with the local community as “really important.”

He said: “It’s what has established us in the town, and what maintains our presence there. The private client work that we do developed off of the back of that, and having these connections with the local organisations is very important to us.

“It is something that we value as a firm, and all our staff are happy to get involved in it.”

Peter described Graysons as a firm that is able to ride most challenges, which is what has allowed them to sustain themselves in this region for 25 years.

The Covid pandemic was a period that provided a new challenge to the firm. Like all other businesses, Graysons had to adapt to a new business landscape.

Before the pandemic, their staff were all office based, with a preference for working with clients in person. In a post Covid world, however, many of their staff work more remotely, favouring video conferences.

The firm still however tries to maintain the personal touch, offering clients in-person appointments.

Peter said: “I think client habits have changed, as well as business practice. I’m perhaps a bit old fashioned; I like to see clients in person, but in terms of offering our clients a range of ways of contacting us, yes it has changed.

“Fortunately for us, Covid didn’t hit the business very hard. Like everyone else, we had to adapt quickly, but we remained busy and have done since.”

Other more recent changes at Graysons includes their office move from Saltergate to purpose built premises at the Glass Yard premises on Sheffield Road. A move which Peter said has been well received by staff and clients alike.

In July 2021, Graysons strengthened their connection with Derbyshire, taking over the office of Favell, Smith and Lawson solicitors in Hathersage, thus extending the firms services into the Hope Valley.

Peter said: “We very much feel that North Derbyshire and the Hope Valley is an area where we have a presence that we can build on.”

Peter summed up Graysons longevity by pointing to the strapline on the firm's website saying “traditionally progressive.”

Peter said: “Sometimes these things are a bit corny but it does actually sum us up. We are a traditional practice being nearly 100 years old, but we are progressive too.

“We are quite modern now in the way that we operate from new offices at all our locations. We’re quite IT based and are trying to offer services in a way that suits consumers in the 2020s.”