2011 Solihull-based solicitors Wood Glaister merges with Shakespeares

2011 Specialist social housing firm Gorrara Haden Solicitors joins Shakespeares

2011 Shakespeares announces its intention to open an office in Leicester in 2012

2011 After significant consultation with staff, clients and advisers the enlarged firm is re-named Shakespeares

2010 Berryman in Nottingham merges with Shakespeare Putsman – creating a firm with 420 staff and £28m of revenue

2010 Needham & James in Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Cotswolds merges with Shakespeare Putsman – creating a firm with 320 staff and £22m of revenue

2007 Second place in ‘The Lawyer Awards’ under National / Regional Law Firm of the Year

2007 Putsmans LLP and Shakespeares Solicitors combine to become Shakespeare Putsman – a firm with 250 staff and £17m of revenue

2001 Wilcox Lane Clutterbuck merge with Putsmans to form Putsman wlc

1990 Shakespeare & Vernon, Duggan Lea & Co and Bettinsons combine to form Shakespeares Solicitors

1974 Needham & James open in Stratford Upon Avon

1956 Needham & James founded in Birmingham by Henry Needham and Keith James (who is still a consultant with the firm )

1951 Maurice Putsman (who still occasionally attends the firm) forms Putsmans

1940 Forsyth Bettinson acts for Lionel Logue speech therapist to George VI (The King's Speech)

1896 Fredrick Berryman, later Lord Mayor of Nottingham, founded Berryman Solicitors. For a brief period in the 1920's the firm was known as Berryman Snook

1853 Mr Plunkett entered into partnership with a Mr William Shakespeare (no - not that one!) to form Plunkett & Shakespeares Solicitors in New Street Birmingham