Three senior solicitors from DLA Piper have set up a boutique litigation practice in Liverpool – in the same building as their old firm.

Fortuna Law deals exclusively with high value business litigation and was founded by Mark Goodwin, former head of litigation and regulatory at DLA Piper’s Liverpool office. An ex-legal director at DLA Piper and a former senior associate have also joined the practice. A senior associate from the same firm is due to start at the end of November. 

Goodwin, who spent 19 years as a senior litigation partner at DLA Piper, said he founded the business because his team were ‘increasingly subject to conflict issues’.

‘DLA Piper had a number of very high value, complex cases which we couldn’t do because other parts of [the firm] were acting for the other parties. The bigger the firm got the bigger the issue became.’

He added: ‘With the ever-growing size of the client base and geographical footprint of the larger firms, conflicts of interest in litigation and arbitration matters are becoming more frequent and often it is not possible for firms to find a solution under the applicable conflict rules.’

According to Goodwin, the Fortuna team maintains good ties with DLA Piper and has already received conflict referrals from them. Both firms are based in the same building in Liverpool.

Goodwin added: ‘We are fairly unique – not just in Liverpool but outside of London. We are not a usual start up as we have invested £1 million so we can do high value cases. We had to invest heavily in IT and people. Unlike the traditional full-service model, our new firm is highly specialised on business litigation.’

The firm, which began trading in February, said it has secured instructions with a combined claim value in excess of £750m.