Andrew Hopper QC

Andrew Hopper is a solicitor and Queen’s Counsel; still a rare combination. He was admitted a solicitor in 1972 and from 1988 has practised on his own account in a niche practice concerned with professional regulation and discipline, principally in relation to solicitors.

He was appointed Silk in 2001, the fifth solicitor Silk to be appointed and the first outside the City of London.

He is regarded by many as the foremost expert of his generation on the law and practice related to the regulation of solicitors.

He has written, with Gregory Treverton-Jones QC, the Solicitor’s Handbook 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012, an intended annual publication proposed to be the natural successor to the Guide, but containing in one place all the professional rules to which solicitors are subject, as well as guidance about the regulatory system generally, written with the benefit of over thirty years experience of this area of law. With the same co-author he has written a guide to Outcomes-Focused Regulation as adopted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in October 2011.

Unlike the Guide however the Handbook is written from the perspective of the practitioner, rather than that of the regulator.

He is joint General Editor of Cordery on Legal Services, the principal authority on the law and practice affecting the regulation of the supply of legal services, including all aspects of the professional obligations and liabilities of solicitors and the other legal professions, and

He is a consulting editor to the fifth edition of Halsbury’s Laws of England on the subject of solicitors.

He first acted for a solicitor before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in 1975; between 1979 and 2002 he advised and acted for the Law Society in disciplinary and regulatory proceedings, in matters before the Tribunal, the Divisional Court, the Court of Appeal and before the Master of the Rolls, and was the principal prosecutor in the Tribunal for over a decade. He now has an exclusively defence practice, but also acts for the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal itself when it becomes involved as a party to litigation, principally in claims for judicial review.

He has a unique library of all the published decisions of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal from approximately 1989, and many from before that time, in an electronically searchable database.

He has acted for a number of other regulators and has advised on regulatory systems, in this country and abroad.

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Andrew Hopper QC is selective as to the cases he will accept. He has to be satisfied that he will add value for the benefit of the client, and his involvement cannot routinely be justified on the basis of cost. His office is not open to the public and his telephone numbers are unlisted. The details of his own practice (as opposed to those of firms to which he is a consultant) do not appear in any legal or other directory. This site has been established in order to provide information as to the single most convenient means of contacting him, which is by e-mail to andrew.hopper@ahqc.com.

He is generally prepared to read papers and to give a provisional view, and confirm whether he would accept formal instructions, without charge (provided the papers submitted for preliminary consideration are kept within modest bounds and can be deleted or shredded if the matter does not go forward).

His preference is to work with one of a selection of specialist solicitors on whom he knows he can rely, particularly when substantial fact-gathering or preliminary sifting of documents is needed, as anything which reduces the extent of his involvement to a proportionate level represents a saving in costs. In that sense his practice is more like that of a barrister than a solicitor, although his dual ‘title’ enables considerable flexibility.

The members of his personally approved panel are (in order of seniority by date of admission):

Robin Havard, Morgan Cole, Cardiff and London
Jayne Willetts
Andrew Blatt, Murdochs, Wanstead
Glyn Maddocks, Gabb & Co, Abergavenny
Ian Ryan, Finers Stephens Innocent LLP
Nigel West, RadcliffesLeBrasseur, Westminster
Jonathan Goodwin, Chester

Those same individuals are recommended in the event that Andrew Hopper is unavailable or considers that he cannot justify his involvement.

At the level of Silk, those whom he would recommend are:

(Counsel):        Gregory Treverton-Jones QC, 39 Essex Street
                       Jeremy Morgan QC, 39 Essex Street
                       Fenella Morris QC,39 Essex Street

(Solicitor): Geoffrey Williams QC, Geoffrey Williams & Christopher Green, Cardiff

Andrew Hopper QC is a consultant to:

Radcliffes Le Brasseur, 5 Great College Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3SJ
MLM Cartwright, Pendragon House, Fitzalan Court, Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 0BA, and
Geoffrey Williams & Christopher Green, The Mews, 38 Cathedral Road, Cardiff; CF11 9LL;

And is a door tenant at Farrar’s Building, Temple, London EC4Y 7BD.

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Andrew Hopper QC is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, registered number 71587. The SRA Code of Conduct can be found here. The Legal Ombudsman provides an independent complaints resolution service. VAT registration number: 484 2339 33. Insured by European Risk Insurance Company; policy number T2011101109211026