We at Oglethorpe & Broatch are proud of our long tradition of providing a comprehensive legal service to Keswick and the surrounding district. Our records show that in 1855 Robert Broatch was preparing legal documents for the use of local pencil manufacturers. The family name of "Broatch" has been associated with the law in Keswick ever since Joseph Broatch joined his father's practice and the firm was known as "Broatch & Son" from 1914. Since at least 1868 the offices were at Station Street.

John Atkinson Oglethorpe came from the Lorton district and set up his solicitor's practice in Keswick in about 1926. He too was subsequently joined by his son, Frank, who for many years was the Clerk to the Keswick Justices.

The two firms amalgamated on 1st January, 1988 to form the present firm Oglethorpe & Broatch. Two years later, all client services were concentrated at 6 Borrowdale Road, the home of the old Oglethorpe practice.

Oglethorpe & Broatch is pleased to continue its tradition of providing in Keswick a wide range of expertise and experience, and also to enhance its service using the modern ideas, technology and techniques now available to the legal profession.

G.W.B. Mendus, Ll.B., T.E.P.

GMendus@oglethorpeandbroatch.co.uk

Gareth was born in Workington and educated in Cumbria before studying law at Liverpool University and the College of Law at Guildford. He worked for a Bristol city centre firm as a trainee solicitor and stayed with that firm for a further year after qualifying.
Gareth says “It was always my intention to return to Cumbria and, if possible, to work in Keswick and walk the fells.” After three months travelling overland to India Gareth joined the firm of Broatch & Son (then part of Milburn & Co) in Keswick for a year, before moving to Milburn’s offices first in Cockermouth and then in Whitehaven.

J. M. W. Dunn Ll.B (Notary Public)

JDunn@oglethorpeandbroatch.co.uk

Mancunian in origin, John Dunn obtained his degree in law at Liverpool University.  He trained in the commercial property and litigation departments of a large Manchester law firm. He remained with the same firm after qualification in 1975, but moved to its Bolton office where he continued to work in the property and litigation fields.  In particular he was able to acquire considerable experience in conducting cases in the Chancery and Queen’s Bench divisions of the High Court and in the civil division of the Court of Appeal. He also worked with the property department of a national chain of retailers. He was a partner in the firm from 1979 to 1989, when he left to join the partnership of Oglethorpe & Broatch in Keswick.

John now is in charge of the firm’s conveyancing workload, dealing with the considerable variety of property work that arrives in a rural solicitors’ practice. “You might think that a country firm has a fairly routine set of work,” he says, “but the opposite is really the case. We seem to have everything from commercial lettings and contentious landlord and tenant work, through residential conveyancing and the tourism sector, into the green fields of farms and agricultural property – far more varied work than in most big towns”.

He has been involved in the use of computers in legal practice from the early 1980s and the arrival of the IBM PC.  This has stood the firm in good stead as the electronic revolution begins to impinge more and more on legal practice. “I’m fascinated by the seemingly endless ways computers can be used in the law – usually for the good, but not always.” John doesn’t claim to be a computer expert, but has the experience to recognise where computers can help.
 
John is currently Vice-President of West Cumberland Law Society, and is a member of the Keswick Victorian Fayre Committee.
 
“And if I have time to look out of the window, I’ve got one of the best views from an office in England.”’

OGLETHORPE & BROATCH SOLICITORS

6 Borrowdale Road, Keswick, Cumbria, CA12 5DB. DX62951 Keswick.

(017687) 72125 24 hour answerphone. Fax (017687) 74678. info@oglethorpeandbroatch.co.uk