Winckley Square, Preston

January 20, 2015

As a consequence of the introduction of electronic document management and a stated intention to grow Chambers nationally, St John’s Buildings have announced the strategic decision to close their Preston annexe on the 31st December 2014. St John’s Buildings have retained the use of conference facilities on Winckley Square, to be used as required, for the convenience of our clients.

Chief Executive, Chris Ronan commented, “We are committed to our clients in Lancashire and on the Fylde Coast. We have extensively surveyed our clients and asked them what they want from their Chambers. The research demonstrated that the geographically spread nature of the region means that it is inconvenient for clients and lay clients to travel into central Preston on a regular basis. We have therefore committed ourselves to taking our expertise directly to the clients in those areas. We have embarked on a three year strategic plan forecasting considerable growth geographically, at the heart of which is client service.”

Sally Harrison QC said “With the introduction of electronic document management and our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint it became evident that having a Preston Annexe was not fully addressing our clients’ desire to have our services delivered at locations convenient to them. By closing the annexe, we will improve our client service, while retaining the availability of conference facilities on Winckley Square. I believe that our commitment to client service will continue to produce positive improvement for our clients.”

All of the St John’s Buildings sites in Manchester, Liverpool, Chester and Sheffield provide a full service Chambers with a number of additional, non-client facing services being centralised in Manchester. The Preston premises acted as the only annexe of St John’s buildings.

Notes

1. The Preston contact telephone numbers and email addresses will remain the same.
2. This decision has had no impact on the staff or barristers or the availability of their skills. The single member of staff based in Preston has moved to St John’s Buildings Manchester. There will be no change to the clerking of members who were based in Preston as they were and will continue to be clerked from Manchester.

16.12.2014