Left to right, Alun Jones, Matthew Tossell and Gareth Williams
Gareth Williams has been a Partner at Hugh James for 39 years and was Senior Partner for the last 12.
Mr Williams will retire from the partnership but will continue to work with the firm as a consultant, alongside his other responsibilities as company secretary of the Welsh Rugby Union, chair of the University of South Wales, non-executive director of Thomas Carroll Group and trustee of the Welsh Rugby Union Charitable Trust and of Prostate Cymru.
Matthew Tossell will be combining his current role as Chief Executive of Involegal LLP with his new Senior Partner responsibilities.
Mr Tossell will take Hugh James forward into the next phase of it’s growth plans and will be overseeing the relocation to the new 100,000 sq. ft. office in Central Square, Cardiff in 2018.
Joining Hugh James in 1983, Mr Tossell became a partner in 1987. He helped set up and develop the firm’s commercial property and social housing departments before creating a secured lending group servicing the banking sector across the UK.
He was appointed managing partner of the firm between 1999 and 2011 during which time he led the business through significant growth, seeing the Hugh James consolidate its offices throughout south east Wales into a single Cardiff headquarters as well as launch Hugh James’s presence in London in 2007. On stepping down as managing partner, he set up Involegal LLP, a specialist volume legal services provider to the financial services and corporate sectors.
On his new appointment, Matthew Tossell said:
“I am of course both delighted and privileged to be appointed to this position at a very exciting time for the firm. I will be focused on driving forward our aggressive expansion plans in our target markets across the UK.
“It will be a challenge to follow in the footsteps of Gareth who has been an exceptional senior partner but it is one I am looking forward to meeting.”
Gareth Williams said:
“It has been a rare privilege to have spent so many happy years with Hugh James. Though naturally I have mixed emotions about stepping down from the partnership after such a long association, the time is right for me to do so.
“I am hugely proud of what we have achieved over the years, and I have no doubt at all that the firm will continue to flourish under the leadership of Matthew and managing partner Alun Jones both of whom are steeped in the traditions of Hugh James. It is a source of great pleasure for me that, as a consultant, I shall still have an opportunity to contribute to the firm’s continued growth.”
