Case study: Stephens Scown LLP

Stephens Scown LLP has been a long-standing member and supporter of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce. In fact, one of its partners, Davina Haydon, sits on the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

Westcountry-based Stephens Scown LLP is an award-winning legal firm with offices in Truro, St Austell and Exeter. It has over 290 staff, including more than 50 partners, and is one of the largest law firms in Devon and Cornwall, offering a broad range of expert business and personal legal services, as well as expertise in a number of key market sectors. 

Founded in 1938, Stephens Scown is consistently ranked highly in the UK’s top two independent legal guides, Chambers and Legal 500 and came 16th in the Sunday Times 100 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For 2017. The firm also won UK Law Firm of the Year at the British Legal Awards 2016.  Clients range from individuals to SMEs, FTSE and international companies. 

Why Cornwall Chamber of Commerce?
Cornwall Chamber of Commerce provides us with a fantastic opportunity to engage with businesses from all sectors across the county, from start-ups to established businesses. The monthly breakfasts and lunches are a fixture in our networking calendar, allowing us to catch up with our existing contacts, and meet new businesses in a relaxed environment.  We also co-sponsor the Chamber Innovation Investment Network, pitch event where six hand-selected businesses seeking business investment, pitch to business angels looking to invest. Programmes like this are so important to help growing businesses in our community flourish.

We’re committed supporters of the Cornwall Business Fair, the largest business event in the county. Held during Cornwall Business Week, the fair brings together businesses from across Cornwall. In 2018 we were asked to deliver a talk on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the Lightning Stage. GDPR marks the biggest change in the rules protecting people’s personal information since the Data Protection Act 1998. Our IP & IT team helps businesses both large and small across the UK (including some household names) better understand the new GDPR and ensure they have the systems and processes in place to avoid falling foul of the new regulation.  The 2018 fair took place on 18 April, just one month before the GDPR deadline of 25 May. Businesses needed to act quickly to get their GDPR policy and operations in place including auditing their existing processes and changing the way they collect, store, use and share data. Our talk, by Head of IP & IT and GDPR expert, Ben Travers, guided attendees through the basics of GDPR and how to get started.  The talk was delivered to a packed room and it was great to be able to support businesses on a one to many method, an offering which we have since expanded.
We’re already looking forward to next year’s Cornwall Business Fair.