Harcourt Bell

Since 1974.

Harcourt Bell began with two lawyers, one secretary and a borrowed typewriter in two rooms above a bookbinder on Corn Street, Bristol. It is still independent.

1974
Eleanor Harcourt and Gerald Bell meet on opposite sides of a boundary dispute over a Somerset orchard. Gerald’s client wins; Eleanor’s client keeps the trees. They open on Corn Street that autumn.
1970s
The early work is property and probate for West Country farming families, and the disputes that follow them. Gerald builds a reputation for settling cases on terms that let both families still share a lane.
1988
The firm moves to Queen Square, still its head office. Corporate work begins when a farming client sells its dairy business and asks us to handle it rather than “a London firm we’ve never met”.
1996
A Bristol engineering client expands into the City and asks for a London presence. We open a small office in Holborn.
2004
Gerald Bell dies. The partners decline two merger approaches that year, and Eleanor writes the note to partners that is still read at every partner induction.
2011
Rhodri Pryce opens the Cardiff office on Cathedral Road.
2016
Eleanor Harcourt dies, aged 85. She stopped billing in 1999 but kept a desk at Queen Square and read every new partner’s first advice letter until 2014.
2019
We advise on our first transfer of a business to an Employee Ownership Trust. It becomes one of the things we are known for.

The founders.

Eleanor Harcourt (1931–2016) was a property lawyer, born in Taunton, the daughter of a cattle auctioneer. She was known for short letters, long memories and a refusal to use the word “herewith”. She built the firm’s commercial property practice and its habit of quoting fixed fees for routine work.

Gerald Bell (1929–2004) was a litigator, born in Bedminster and a former Royal Navy signals officer. He believed most disputes were lost in the first letter and won in the second meeting. His grandson, Thomas Bell, now leads our Private Client practice.

“Write to the client as if they will read the letter twice: once when it arrives, and once on the worst day of their year. Make sure it still makes sense on the second reading.”

Eleanor Harcourt, note to partners, 2004

What we still do.

These are habits rather than values, because a client can check them.

  1. The person you meet does the work. A partner leads every matter, and you always know who is doing what.
  2. Advice in plain English, in writing, early. Within the first week, you get a short view of where you stand and what we think will happen.
  3. Price before work. A fixed fee or a written estimate before any chargeable work, and a warning before it changes.
  4. Settle where it serves you. Litigation is a tool, not a business model.
  5. Independent by choice. No mergers, no outside investors, no referral fees.
  6. Phones are answered by a person, during office hours, in every office.