Law firm Watson Burton announces new partnership with national risk management group

Watson Burton, the commercial law firm, has secured a long-term partnership with a risk management group Lucion Services.

The law firm, which has offices in Newcastle, Leeds and London, had made this move to increase its presence in the construction and insurance sectors.

Lucion Services is a group of health and safety risk management companies with offices across the UK, including Hessle and Rotherham.

The partnership will allow Lucion’s clients to connect with the specialist legal support offered by Watson Burton, and the law firm will be using its multi-disciplinary experience to review contracts on behalf of the group.

Lucion has recently been joined by asbestos management specialist Redhills, which has created a firm in the health and safety sector with a 365-strong workforce across the UK and a turnover of £25m.

Under the agreement, Watson Burton will undertake a ‘traffic light’ report identifying the high-risk, industry standard and non-critical clauses in contracts that Lucion Services is required to enter into.

The partnership will enable Watson Burton to identify contractual terms which pose a risk and will help the group to manage commercial risks more effectively.

The service offered through this arrangement has had been developed using Watson Burton’s Construction and Insurance teams.

Lucion Services operates in sectors including construction, utilities, public sector, education, housing, infrastructure and marine, and focuses on high risk projects.

The group has core specialisms in the identification, measurement, control, remediation and education of risk management, and its companies include Lucion Environmental, Lucion Training, Lucion Marine, Salbrook Vance Consultants, Innov8 Safety Solutions and MPC Remediation.

Richard Palmer, head of Watson Burton’s professions and insurance group, said: “Lucion Services has built up a formidable reputation for helping businesses across a range of sectors.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Lucion Services and to be able to bring our market-leading expertise in this area to the group and its clients.”

“The advice provided to Lucion Services means all parties that sign up to a construction contract can understand the commercial implications of clause and benefit from the guidance offered. Ultimately this means when clients are negotiating, rather than being confrontational, parties can adopt a pragmatic approach to working together to get the contract agreed in a way that is fair to both parties.”

Bal Manak, associate in Watson Burton’s construction and engineering team, added: “This partnership is an example of how businesses can benefit from of our multi-disciplinary approach and our depth of industry expertise in sectors such as construction, infrastructure, housing and education.

“We pride ourselves on working very closely with our clients and are looking forward to developing a long-standing relationship with Lucion Services, and supporting its operations with our specialist legal advice.”

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →