OUR HISTORY
1999
We were founded by former Government Property Lawyers Madeleine Davitt, Tim Sylvester Jones and Stuart Bould, together with Chief Executive, Peter Allinson.
Following the Government Property Lawyers closure, our founders saw an opportunity to continue providing their experience to central government departments. Coming together to start the firm, they established a clear focus that has defined us ever since – a specialist real estate law firm committed to excellence and delighting clients.
With our first contract from the Ministry of Defence, and many subsequent central government and then local government clients coming on board, our public sector specialism was defined early on.
2001
We took on our first part time lawyers, expanded into a second office and trebled turnover on the previous year.
2002
We won our first local authority client: North Somerset Council. We brought Richard Snape on board as our Head of Legal Training to establish an external training programme.
2003
We appointed our first planning lawyer and advised Plymouth City Airport.
2006
We established our payment in proportion model. We also opened our Exchange House Office in Taunton and pioneered remote working as standard for our lawyers.
As the firm grew, attracting and retaining top talent became essential. To secure the specialist property expertise we needed, the traditional law firm model proved too limited. Therefore, we developed 100% remote working model for our lawyers, enabling us to engage the very best property law specialists, regardless of location, a decade before remote working became a widely adopted practice. We focused on offering what other firms couldn’t, including establishing innovative methods to reduce non-chargeable work for lawyers.
2007
Davitt Jones Bould Limited was incorporated.
2008
Despite the extreme challenges caused by the Great Recession, we maintained substantial reserves. We celebrated our 10-year anniversary proudly having made no redundancies as a result of the economic climate.
2013
In four years, we moved up four tiers in the Legal 500. We were also winners of National Boutique Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards.
2014
The Late Geoffrey Lander joined the firm as a Non-Executive Director, later becoming Non-Executive Chairman.
2016
We recruited 12 new lawyers, all from senior backgrounds at firms such as Clifford Chance, Shoosmiths, Nabarro, Simmons & Simmons, Pinsent Masons, Irwin Mitchell.
With their expertise, we continually expanded the sectors we advised in the private sector investment, development and occupier markets. Comfortable in our niche as real estate specialists, with no designs to expand beyond it, we grew organically, and at pace, through finding innovative ways to accessing new clients. We won our first law firm client, who we continue to work with to this day. This was the beginnings of a new service model – Real Estate Support.
2017
Our legal team comprised 40 lawyers with an aggregate PQE of 979 years. Turnover increased by 33% as our private sector client base expanded. We opened our Shard Office, which has remained our London HQ.
2018
We won Boutique Firm of the Year 2018 at The British Legal Awards and were named a Top 35 law firm for real estate in London.
2019
We celebrated our 20th anniversary and achieved 55:45 female to male split at Partner Level.
2020
We officially formed our leading webinar series, marking ourselves as a respected provider of legal training. Malcolm Iley was appointed as a public sector consultant, bringing decades of experience as a leading figure in public and government law.
2021
The COVID-19 Pandemic accelerated remote working as the “norm” across the industry, something we had been operating for over 15 years as key to attracting the best talent.
2022
Established ourselves as a leading law firm in London and Manchester. Our Real Estate Support offering grew substantially, supporting firms from the UK Top 30 and leading global firms on their real estate projects.
2023
Our legal team comprised over 70 senior solicitors with aggregate PQE exceed 1700 years. We appointed John Strachan, former global head of retail at Cushman & Wakefield, as Vice President to help grow our retail practice.
2024
We celebrated our 25th anniversary, marked by a whole firm celebration.
2025
Our monthly legal training webinars with Richard Snape, in their fifth year, became award-nominated and amassed an audience of thousands of property professionals each month. We were ranked in The Times Best Law Firms 2026 and were shortlisted for 7 industry awards.