A sharp legal mind and a caring charity chairman

Dec 21 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

Martin Soloman led his legal practice through a period of rapid growth and in the last two years has steered it through the recession unscathed, as well as helping to raise over £1m for charity in his spare time. Peter McCusker reports.

MARTIN Soloman is describing his approach to handling client legal disputes. “I like to try and find an opening, an opportunity to resolve an issue before digging in and preparing for a long battle. I always look for a resolution.”

So does that make him someone who always looks for a compromise? “Certainly not,” he retorts as he shuffles in his seat. “No lawyer likes to be described as someone who makes compromises. That sounds like they are selling their client short. Rather I like to try and find a resolution that works rather than arguing for the sake of it.”

Soloman has been described by fellow members of the legal profession “as a fighter who gets stuck in for his clients” and has had many notable victories over the years.

“Like a lot of lawyers I have won cases I did not expect to win, ones which were a close call, and these are the ones that give me the greatest satisfaction,” he says.

“These are the cases where you pick up on a point and then work on it and it turns out to be a winner.”

As head of the region’s fifth largest practice Soloman is one of the North East’s most proficient and senior lawyers, as well as being the consummate diplomat.

It is often tricky to get him to move the conversation from the general to the specific, with client confidentiality being at the very core of Soloman’s professional being.

That professionalism has served him well in his chosen career as a lawyer of 30 years standing.

Brought up in South Wales, he studied law at Kent University before passing his law exams at Liverpool Polytechnic.

He found he enjoyed law from the first days of his degree course. “I found it interesting, practical and relevant. I enjoyed the logic of the law and the discipline of looking at issues in different ways, at applying them to real life situations, and how the courts resolve these issues,” he says.

Soloman moved to Newcastle in 1980, aged 26, to work in the city council’s planning department where he was responsible for planning control issues, working on issues stemming from the redevelopment of Byker and other regeneration and construction projects.

He met his wife Liz, who is a native North Easterner, and decided he wanted to stay in the region and find work in the private sector.

Soloman joined Hay & Kilner as a senior solicitor doing a range of commercial work including corporate finance, commercial property and litigation.

The practice had been founded in the 1940s and Soloman recounts the regular visits to the practice by Wilfred Kilner, one of the two founders, who would dispense sage advice to the firm’s eager young lawyers.

In 2002, when the founder’s son John Kilner announced he was retiring, Soloman secured the senior partner position.

In those intervening seven years the practice has doubled in size, now employing 160 people and has 24 partners.

Soloman says: “When I became senior partner we looked long and hard at what were doing, we assessed what we were good at what be could do better and where our growth areas would be.

“There is a need in the region for law firms who concentrate on providing a full range of services on a long-term basis for long-term clients.

“We take a long-term view of all our relationships. We may start with a client from the early growth stage of their business and work with them over the years to the possible sale of a business over a 20-year period. These long-term relationships are very satisfying.”

“We have been through a period of significant growth since 2002 an we have developed greater expertise and specialisms as a result of the growth. There has been significant growth in our clinical negligence work due to an increase in demand to which we have responded.”

Soloman has developed his own expertise in a number of areas including intellectual property.

The practice’s growth has been halted by the recession but it has not resulted in contraction, unlike many of the region’s commercial law firms.

Soloman continued: “Following a period of rapid growth across the region’s law firms many have had to make significant redundancies. Especially those who have focused on areas which are dependent on funding. It has been quite painful for the firms involved in these areas.

“At this stage the jury is still out on where the economy is going now. There have been some encouraging signs, signs that credit may now be easier to get than it has been in the last 18 months.

“We have made minor adjustments at our firm, but we like the shape of our practice and we want to keep that shape and further invest for the future. In recent months we have recruited some good people and we regard this as an investment in our long-term future.

“Our core business is in the North East and we aim to continue to build upon that long-term relationship with companies and individuals in the North East.”

He has enjoyed the transformation of Newcastle in the 20 years since he arrived here, and toasts the region’s combination of cities, culture, coast and countryside.

“Newcastle has a great feel to it. When I talk to people who are visiting for the first time they describe it as a relatively cosmopolitan and interesting city,” he enthuses.

“As a keen walker I like the fact that within 40 minutes of leaving home I can be walking up a mountain.” He cites walking up Cheviot as his favourite walk in the UK.