Last month prominent Liverpool solicitor Paul Rooney sadly passed away following a long illness. Paul studied law at Sheffield University before being admitted as a solicitor in 1970. He founded the Paul Rooney Partnership in Liverpool over 30 years ago and owned the firm until it was acquired by Manchester based personal injury firm Antony Hodari in September 2012, becoming Paul Rooney Legal. The sale of the firm didn’t mean retirement for Paul though and he continued to work for the firm providing consultation on direct marketing.
It was in the field of legal marketing that Paul Rooney made his name; pioneering extensive radio advertising campaigns, which until his contribution had not been heavily used by the industry. He coined the phrase, ‘slip trip or fall; call Paul’ for the firms radio ads. It is a testament to the quality of the catchphrase and to his radio advertising strategy that the phrase is still used, particularly in Liverpool. The firm remains true to the catchphrase and retains a slip, trip and fall compensation claims specialism. Under Paul’s leadership the Paul Rooney Partnership became one of the most well-known personal injury brands in the country. Speaking of her late colleague solicitor at the firm, Caroline Sergeant has said, ‘he worked hard to make the firm the best it could possibly be in Liverpool. He enjoyed the marketing side and promoting the business.’
Unafraid to try controversial marketing tactics the firm has attracted attention in the past for offering incentives such as shopping vouchers or cash to persons encouraging personal injury claimants to contact them. Such tactics have in recent years been criticised as fuelling a ‘compensation culture’ in the UK and have been done away with by the Jackson Reforms of April 2013. However cynically some firms carried out ‘ambulance chasing’ tactics the aim of Paul Rooney was justice; ‘we don’t think it’s fair that you should pay for someone else’s mistakes’ epitomises the firm’s approach. Paul instilled in the firm a deep commitment to its clients remembers Caroline Sergeant, ‘he was also very particular about the way we dealt with clients and to help them as much as we could.’ Paul’s commitment to justice was a motivating factor in him merging with Antony Hodari, which was also in part a result of the Jackson reforms. Speaking of the merger Paul said, ‘it will become harder for injured people to bring claims from next year and they will need firms with the resources of an Antony Hodari to take on their cases and fight for their rights.’
Paul was as dedicated to his staff as he was to getting justice for his clients. The merger with Antony Hodari went through without any redundancies, with all 50 staff remaining in their roles. Commenting on the team spirit his fostered at the firm Caroline has commented that, ‘all his staff were all very loyal as once you went to work for him, you thought you’d found your home. It was like working for a family’, adding, ‘he wanted us all to be happy because he knew happy staff work harder.’
Paul was a proud Liverpudlian and an avid Liverpool FC supporter, speaking of the merger firm’s merger he said that, ‘it’s also good for Liverpool as it means a highly resourced firm will still be based here.’ The Paul Rooney Partnership was hugely supportive of the families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and represented a number of them in the Public enquiry.
Stewart McCulloch of Liverpool Law Society summed up the thoughts of many at Paul’s passing, ‘Paul was a very prominent, industrious member of the legal profession in Liverpool. He was a big character and will be sorely missed.’ Our thoughts go to Paul’s wife, Sue and their two sons.
