We are delighted to announce that Leverets Group will be sponsoring the Kent and Medway Business Summit 2024, taking place on Friday 12 January 2024.
To celebrate, we caught up with Rupert Butler, Head of Legal Practice at the firm, who will also be featuring on our Productivity Panel at the Summit.
Rupert Butler may be practising out of offices in Kent now, and building a distinct Kent and Medway signature, but he’s seen it all.
As one of the first barristers to be licensed to conduct litigation and accept instructions directly from the public, he has handled everything from high profile civil claims, criminal cases and public inquiries.
One case in particular, which he worked on pro bono, is his ‘personal highlight’ and it changed his approach to law.
‘I represented a victim of a miscarriage of justice who had been convicted of historic sexual abuse based on the sole testimony of his accuser. When I read the case, I thought “what a load of old cobblers – how did the jury buy that?”.
The client had been sentenced to nine years in jail and we took the case on pro bono in the Court of Appeal. We proved the accuser was a fantasist and we won.
‘The head of the Court of Appeal at the time, Lord Justice Leveson of the Leveson Inquiry, quashed the conviction, freed my client and then apologised to him – I had never heard that before. That was a very striking moment’.
Several high profile cases followed before Rupert set up his own practice in Kent.
He says: ‘The practice as it stands today works largely in litigation and advisory work in the fields of company and commercial law and corporate insolvency.
‘We pride ourselves on working innovatively, which boosts our productivity and in turn, our value for money by combining Barristers and Solicitors under one roof. In Kent, we benefit from lower overheads so we were able to work differently. We introduced homeworking and flexibility by the greater use of technology and we thrived.
‘The local economy is important to us. On one hand, people are suffering in their businesses, but on the other hand, there’s a labour shortage. Companies are collapsing rather than shedding – so it’s a great paradox.’
Leverets are present in the county by working closely with sports organisations, like Kent Cricket and by offering sponsorships philanthropically, such as that of the F51 Skateboard Park in Folkestone.
‘We see the big squeeze on organisations doing magnificent work in Kent, and we want to be there to show our support. The Kent and Medway Business Summit sponsorship is an extension of this, but it is also a great platform to market our company.’
Rupert stresses that the company are now ‘putting their name down in Kent.’
‘Don’t be afraid of us because we have represented larger clients, we are here for the people who make Kent the place that it is. We want to be talking to as many people as we can at the Summit. I attend every year, I am looking forward to the informative speeches and presentations. Mostly, I am excited about networking and fostering new business relationships.’