Brethertons Solicitors are preparing for their 200 year celebrations with a series of client and community focused events which will take place during the course of this year.
Shaun Jardine, Partner at Brethertons explains: “Brethertons has been delivering legal services to our clients and the community for over 200 years and to celebrate this we have planned a number of initiatives to thank people for the support and loyalty which they have shown us”
The firm will undertake 200 hours of free legal work which equates to £35,000 on behalf of local charities and good causes. Other activities will include the planting of 200 trees in Banbury and Rugby, sponsorship of events aimed at older members of the community the creation of a student law prize for younger members of the community, and a prize draw which will see one lucky Brethertons client and their partner visiting Kracow in Poland amongst many other scheduled events.
Brethertons has been practising law since 1810, when King George III was on the British throne and when Count William Ferdinand Wratislaw (1788-1853), a Bohemian nobleman, began his legal practice in Rugby, Warwickshire.
The firm’s founder, Count William Ferdinand Wratislaw, was the third son of Marc Wratislaw (1735-1796), and it is William that founded his solicitor practice in Rugby – the forerunner of today’s Brethertons LLP.
The Wratislaw family history goes back further than this, as William’s father Marc Wratislaw was a Bohemian descendent of John Wenceslau Wratislaw von Mitrowitz (Count Wratislaw). The Count had supported Prince Eugene of Savoy Carignan to rally reinforcements to fight in The Battle of Blenheim in 1704 in which the Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, and the allied forces won and the French surrendered. The Battle was a turning point in the War of the Spanish Succession and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire was built by the Crown as a gift to Marlborough to mark the importance of the success of the campaign.
John Wenceslau Wratislaw’s name might sound familiar as he was a descendent of “Good King Wenceslaus” or the Duke of Bohemia (907-935), who was the son of Wratislaus the First of Bohemia – Vratislaus I (888-912) and who had been a lawyer in his early years. The Wratislaus lineage can be traced all the way back to Krok the Munificent (born 614AD) who founded the city of Krakow in Poland.
Richard Pell, Senior Partner at Brethertons explains: “I am honoured to be Senior Partner at Brethertons during our 200th anniversary year. For 200 years our clients have trusted Brethertons with their legal needs. Our bicentennial year gives us a unique, historic occasion to thank our clients and share our excitement about the future with them, our staff and the communities in which we live and work. Two hundred years ago Brethertons was a small, local firm based in Rugby serving a predominantly rural community we are now recognised as one of the Top 250 firms in the UK.”
Celebrating Brethertons Bicentenary
