The history of the Firm can be traced back to the 1840s when George Arnold established a legal practice that, with the accretion of partners, became Arnold Fooks Chadwick in the 1870s.
At that time the Firm was in Carey Street (literally, not euphemistically) being situated in a handsome Queen Anne building across the road from the Royal Courts of Justice.

George Arnold, the founding partner, established the Firm’s connection with the Catholic Church that has endured to this day.

Mr Arnold acted for the Diocese of Westminster and Southwark and for numerous religious orders.  It is perhaps a reflection of a gentler age as well as evidence of Mr Arnold’s indefatigable nature that, besides establishing the Firm’s reputation, he found the time to serve eight terms of office as Mayor of Gravesend, to write 10 published works on Kentish history, and to be invested as a Knight of St Gregory by Pope St Pius X.  He also served as president of the St Vincent de Paul Society and commissioned the statue of St Thomas More that still stands at the corner of Carey Street and Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
Mr Arnold went to his reward in 1908 but the Firm that he founded went from strength to strength, broadening its client base to include new private and business clients. The Firm moved, retaining its loyal clientele, to its current Mayfair offices sometime in the 1920s when the immediate vicinity was still largely residential and the streets echoed with the laughter of the “bright young things”.

The Firm is notable not only for the loyalty of its clients but also its staff. The late Mrs Harkin joined the Firm in 1928 as a Junior Clerk at a salary of 10 shillings a week and went on to serve 73 years at the Firm, retiring in 2001. In addition to her more regular duties she kept the partners’ betting book and was in charge of procuring their cigarettes. During the Blitz she was fire warden for Bolton Street, patrolling the rooftops as required and sleeping in the Firm’s cavernous strong room that still houses the Deeds and documents of some of the Firm’s original clients, including one bearing the signatures of Napoleon and the Empress Eugenia.

The Firm’s current senior partner Roger Millman has been at the Firm advising clients on all areas of litigation and commercial law since 1974 - but has no intention of breaking Mrs Harkin’s record!

Of course, the Firm has changed a great deal over the years.  Specialist expertise has been acquired and developed in other areas through its strong connections with clients in many different walks of life:

• Entrepreneurs
• International traders
• Technology and communications companies
• Fashion entrepreneurs
• Shops and restaurants in the Mayfair locality and elsewhere
• Members’ and Proprietors’ clubs
• Administrators and insolvency practitioners
• Property managers, investors and developers
• Foreign nationals and companies
• Partnerships
• Professionals such as accountants and architects

Serving the needs of Catholic institutions remains a fundamental part of our practice and we have been recommended by legal directory ‘the Legal 500’ for our charity department, particularly our expertise in ecclesiastical and church law.