John Howell started John Howell & Co in 1979. At that time it was based exclusively in Sheffield and comprised him and one secretary. The firm grew until, by 1996, it employed over 100 staff and had a turnover of about £3,000,000 per year.
The firm - now known as Howells - is still a major firm in Sheffield in the North East. John Howell no longer has any financial links with that firm.
In 1986 the firm started to undertake work with a continental European element.
In 1988 the firm opened an office in London. That dealt only with Spanish related work. It remained a small but profitable unit with just one partner - John Usher - and one secretary
In 1996 John Howell left the Sheffield practice and took over full responsibility for the London office. His aim has been to make the London office grow as quickly as possible (consistent with keeping control) so as to deal not only with the volume of work previously dealt with by John Usher as well as the international work previously dealt with in Sheffield but also substantially increased levels of work generally.
Since then we have grown a lot and now deal with transactions in over 30 countries. List of Countries.
The firm is now the largest specialist firm of solicitors dealing with International work for private clients.
In 2004 we were voted the best International Property Lawyers by the Bentley awards.
The firm has for many years been at the forefront of the use of computers within a legal office and will continue to make maximum use of computer as an aid to productivity and the provision of a superb service to clients with minimum back-up staff and associated overheads.
In September 2006 John Howell & Co became The International Law Partnership LLP. This better describes what we do and opens a number of extra business opportunities to us. It also offers us a more flexible and modern management structure.