Legal Awards 2020

4 | SME NEWS - Legal Awards 2020 At a time when cuts by the government meant that people could no longer afford to pay their legal fees in deeply personal cases, one man had a vision of what it could mean to help the people suffering the most. The result is Ikbal Solicitors, a boutique law firm that helps the public have access to legal assistance and resources at a time when government cuts result in delays that leave cases with no conclusions. Having earned success in this years’ Legal Awards with SME News, we take a closer look at the firm. Founded just last year, Ikbal Solicitors is a new face on the block within the legal sector in the United Kingdom, but one of the most exciting and client-centric. The idea began with Cameron Iqbal, who is the Managing Director of the firm, and evolved into the law firm being founded in 2019 in a famous local cake shop in Oldham. Despite the unorthodox setting, nothing about what Cameron wanted to do was unorthodox. His vision was, and remains to this day, to help the public with their legal needs at a time when the government was closing courts and decreasing legal aid. Cameron believed that those governmental cuts would eventually lead to individuals having no access to courts in order to raise their concerns, resulting in more delays and a lack of clarity surrounding any pending cases or concerns. It might also mean that those same individuals would be forced to give up their right to challenge a resolved matter, as expensive legal fees would prevent most people from being able to access the court. It was this that Cameron sought to change, and change it he has. Since being founded in 2019, Ikbal Solicitors has already expanded its service offerings to help clients in a wide range of legal areas, including commercial, contract, consumer, construction, criminal, debt, privacy, litigation, transport, public, sports, and immigration law alongside a myriad of many others. However, despite offering advice on cases pertaining to medical or clinical negligence, Cameron and his team do not cater for personal injury cases and more specifically, road traffic accidents. Cameron believed that in order to clear the backlog of the cases within the courts, solicitors would need to adopt a different mindset. One of putting people before profits, to create a domino effect. Not only would this approach help the people who need it most, but it would also eventually create wealth as the assets that Excellence Award in Emerging Legal Services - Greater Manchester Ikbal Solicitors are subject to disagreement would be resolved quicker, thereby helping the country’s financial position. Thus began Ikbal Solicitors, with the mission of becoming the most affordable law firm in the country by charging the lowest per-hour rate whilst making sure that legal matters should not put the client into a financially compromised position. In order to achieve this, the team at Ikbal Solicitors works to ensure that the client is allowed to propose their own per-hour rate fee by conversing with the firm itself. As a result of this dedication to putting people before profits, Ikbal Solicitors has already achieved its goal of becoming the lowest legal fee per hour priced law firm in the United Kingdom. In doing so, the firm has taken great pride in its ability to be there for people who otherwise might not be able to afford the legal services they require. Its rates are a testament to its mission and desire to put people before profits, and help them gain closure in any pending cases. Whilst each client may have various different legal issues and requirements, Cameron and the team at Ikbal Solicitors has assisted on legal drafting, advisory services, litigation, and negotiation in civil, family, contract, property, commercial, immigration, and issues between landlord and tenant. One of the other major areas that Ikbal Solicitors has managed to emerge as a top law firm in is that of reconciliation. Some parties would rather resolve an argument or a dispute before it gets to the courtroom, and since being founded just one year ago, Cameron and his team have found themselves being instructed on matters relating to reconciliation between those