The Spirit of Enterprise 25 years of Watson, Farley & Williams

The Spirit of Enterprise
a litigation capability, and that gap was filled
with the arrival of Charles Smallwood in
January 1983 from Holman, Fenwick & Willan
in Hong Kong and shortly after that by Simon
Curtis from Ince & Co.
Strength of a handshake
The manner in which Charles Smallwood joined
Watson, Farley & Williams shows the confidence
that people had in the new firm, as Alastair
Farley relates:
“Charles was working at Holman Fenwick
in Hong Kong. He phoned up, and expressed
interest to join us, after seeing an ad we had
placed advertising for litigation lawyers. Some
time in late 1982 I stopped off in Hong Kong on
my way back from the Far East on one trip and
arranged to have dinner with him. By the end of
the dinner we had agreed terms, and Charles
had mentioned that he would be free to start at
the beginning of January. On my return to
London, I wrote Charles a letter confirming
the terms we had agreed. I never heard back
so I assumed, much to my regret, that he had
changed his mind. Then, on 2 nd January, Charles
turned up in the office. I was astonished, and
told him that I had not heard from him since our
meeting, to which Charles replied that he had
never received the letter that I had sent him!
My letter had gone by sea mail. So Charles joined
us on the basis of a handshake in a Japanese
restaurant in Hong Kong at midnight.”
25 years of Watson, Farley & Williams
Watson, Farley & Williams became
renowned as outstanding lawyers, problem
solvers, commercially astute and, vitally, well
versed in the sectors in which they operated.
More than this, however, “the founders inculcated
in us all a gold dust mentality,” as Frank Dunne
recalls. “That was one of the huge differences in
culture between WFW and the firms we had
left. In this new small firm we had a relatively
small number of core clients, who, of course,
meant a huge amount to us. They were the ‘gold
dust’ and the absolute need to give them an
outstanding service was deeply ingrained in
all of us. Because of our commitment, the
clients were extraordinarily well served.”
The firm’s lawyers travelled incessantly to
ensure that their clients’ needs were attended to,
Martin Watson concentrating on his clients in
northern Europe and Scandinavia and Alastair
Farley on his clients in the Mediterranean.
“Shipping is a very personal business,” Alastair
Farley explains. “Many of the shipowning
businesses were family-owned, passing down
from generation to generation. Even on the
financing side, because of its specialist nature,
shipping business was dealt with by a certain
coterie of individuals, who would stay in that
line of work even when they moved banks. We
served them well and believed that, as a result,
they stayed loyal to us. At the time, I remember
people coming up to us and saying that we
must have had the most marvellous marketing
operation because of our top clients. But the
truth was, it was all word of mouth, being in
the market place and doing the deals.”
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