Stephen Firmin

Director, Solicitor

+44 (0)1206 217023

stephen.firmin@tsplegal.com

Stephen Firmin, who qualified as a solicitor in 1993, joined TSP to head up the Commercial Property and Agriculture team in May 2011.

Stephen has over 20 years’ experience in Company and Commercial law and has a particular expertise in Commercial Property. Stephen’s wide-ranging knowledge and experience mean that he is able to advise clients on achieving their objectives across a broad range of business activities. He has helped client companies of differing sizes – from start-ups and family businesses to large PLC’s – and from many and varied business sectors, to achieve their business goals.

Stephen attended St Joseph’s College in Ipswich before going on to complete his Law degree at Nottingham Trent University in 1990. Having completed his Legal Practice Course at the College of Law, Guildford, he trained at an Ipswich firm, qualifying in 1993. Stephen become a partner in that firm in 1995, before joining Thompson Smith and Puxon in 2011, since which time Stephen has been the director of Stephen Firmin Ltd, a partner in Thompson Smith and Puxon.

Stephen also advises the firm’s substantial portfolio of agricultural clients, and is a Fellow of the Agricultural Law Association (FALA). The ALA has been the UK’s largest inter-professional organisation devoted to the business of the countryside for almost 40 years.

Thompson Smith and Puxon has, for a number of years, been highlighted by the Legal 500 as a Leading Firm in the Commercial Property practice area and Stephen is recommended for his work in this area. He is also recommended for his Agriculture & Estates work and his Corporate and Commercial work.

In 2018/19, for Commercial Property, the Legal 500 said “The ‘impressive, efficient, attentive-to-detail and competent’ commercial property department at Thompson Smith and Puxon, ‘one of the best firms in Colchester’, ‘runs a tight ship’ and ‘is fully up to speed with the law, but also well versed in the current property industry practice, demonstrating good judgement and pragmatism during negotiations’. Development site and agricultural land transactions, strategic land planning, lease work and enfranchisement matters represent the team’s core areas of activity. ‘Vastly knowledgeable’ Stephen Firmin, who is recommended for his ‘professional approach’, heads the practice.

For Agriculture & Estates the Legal 500 said: “Clients rate Thompson Smith and Puxon as ‘a professional firm with an excellent knowledge of all matters relating to agriculture and estates’. Practice head Stephen Firmin ‘takes the time to ensure that the client’s objectives are fully understood and tailors advice to achieve those objectives’.

Stephen says “I am delighted to hold the Fellowship of the Agricultural Law Association. The Association plays such a very important role in bringing together leading practitioners in rural affairs from across the UK and Europe and provides excellent academic support to its Fellows and Members. As a practice TSP holds an annual Agricultural Law Workshop at its Colchester Office, hosted by Geoff Whittaker of the ALA, to which we invite our fellow professionals, such as Land Agents and Surveyors, who also serve local agriculture.”

To find out more about the Commercial Property service that Stephen can offer click here. For Agriculture services please click here.