Solicitor achieves 32 years with one company

Toby Greenwood, senior partner of the recently restyled Cooper Solicitors (formerly Cooper Son & Caldecott), spoke to members of Henley Rotary Club at their lunch meeting at Henley Golf Club on Tuesday. He gave a brief resume of his life, both before and after he moved to Henley. 


He was articled firstly to his uncle, who had a practice in Hanley, North Staffordshire. Little did he realise then that he would later practise law in another town spelt with almost the same name.

After Hanley, Mr Greenwood went to Bristol University, where he and two fellow students had their first brush with the law when they were wrongly arrested by the Special Patrol Group.

He later applied to serve articles at the City law firm at which his grandfather had been a partner, only to be turned down because it only took graduates from Oxford or Cambridge. 


However, Clifford Turner, one of the largest law practices in the City (later to merge with Coward Chance), agreed to article him but he failed the Law Society final examinations while there.

A further failure while studying at night school sent him into the world of insurance, where he was employed for a time with CT Bowring.

However, after a period of unemployment and working as a temporary storeman at Battle Hospital, in 1978 he went back into the law by joining Cooper Son & Caldecott in Henley as a clerk.

Mr Greenwood finally qualified in June 1979 and has worked for the firm ever since, with a wide variety of work, including family and divorce law, land deals and company business as well as many forays to Henley Magistrates’ Court when it was held in the town before 1999.

He explained that, as senior partner, he dealt with human resources and marketing and had been responsible for overseeing the recent rebranding of the firm with the motto, “Keeping you ahead”.

During his time in Henley he has also involved himself in many local voluntary organisations and sports clubs. He was a founder of the Citizens Advice Bureau and was instrumental in setting up the Friends of the CAB. Roger Sayer proposed the vote of thanks.