ABOUT US
Our founder Anthony Armitage, a practising solicitor, has spent his entire career in the law working in private practice and in-house and most recently as Head of Regulatory Management at the Solicitors Regulation Authority. There he led a specialist team managing the SRA’s relationship with the largest City, National, International and Global law firms
Following ten years in private practice in the City of London, he set up First Law in 2000. First Law provided advice on legal recruitment, procurement exercises and performance reviews for public sector organisations, charities and businesses and administering panels of lawyers for national regulators. First Law was a finalist at Barclays Achievement Awards in 2000
Anthony returned to legal practice in 2012, joining Southern Housing Group as its first in-house lawyer where he grew and lead the legal team as General Counsel. Anthony played a key role in raising standards of regulatory compliance at the SRA, through the introduction of new corporate values and by writing SRA guidance on regulatory obligations to report misconduct. He was the principal architect of the SRA’s new guidance on Conduct in Disputes published in March 2022, which was endorsed by the Government in its call for evidence on Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation
Anthony realised that the skills, experience and expertise he had acquired over his career could now be shared to benefit other organisations through the re-launched First Law consultancy