After a successful legal career spanning 44 years in the city, Chester solicitor Robin Jones is stepping down.
Formerly a consultant at Knights Solicitors and the former senior partner at Wayman-Hales and Chester managing partner at Hill Dickinson, he retired on Wednesday, April 30.
Mr Jones, 67, said that retirement will give him more time with his family while continuing to indulge his passion for sport.
He is also an ambassador for the oncology unit at Clatterbridge Hospital and his retirement will enable him to spend more time involved with that activity.
Mr Jones said: “I am quite happy to retire now; it will afford me more time to get involved with other things that interest me.
“I intend to take a couple of holidays and then I will be ready to devote my time to something else.
“I have always been involved with the city and with sports clubs in particular and I am not going to disappear just because I have retired.”
The former King’s School pupil studied law at the University of Liverpool before qualifying in 1970. He practised commercial and commercial property law.
He began his career in White Friars with Wayman-Hales, which later merged with Hill Dickinson before it was more recently taken over by Knights.
Knights is the UK’s first private equity backed commercial law firm and has been in Chester since October of last year.
Mr Jones, a former president of the Law Society for Cheshire and North Wales, said that over the course of his working life, the profession has altered hugely.
He said the law has changed dramatically: “When I first qualified, people went to a solicitor in much the same way as they would a doctor but now, practising law is viewed more as a commercial enterprise.
“Solicitors have to be businessmen as well as lawyers, they are free to advertise and the competition is so much stiffer and more people are involved in the profession, particularly women.”
Born and bred in Chester, Mr Jones’ father was a schoolmaster. Robin married Carolyn Jones in 1971. They have two children Michael, 40, a banker with Coutts in London and daughter, Sarah Innes, 38, a solicitor recently with Messrs Clifford Chance in London. The couple are also grandparents.
As he looks forward to a life away from law, Mr Jones passed on a few words of advice for those wishing to enter the profession.
The keen cricketer, golfer and Liverpool supporter said: “Anyone who enters the law these days should be prepared for a life of commitment.
“As well as being a specialist lawyer, they will need to be businessmen and commercially aware. There is a greater degree of specialisation required and, although challenging, the life can be very rewarding.”
