Forty-seven years of continuous practice in the centre of Bury St Edmunds. Founded in 1979 by Robin Burnett and David Barker, in 2012 we absorbed Partridge & Wilson, a long-established Bury firm believed to be at least 200 years old. Since 2016 we have been second-generation under Chief Executive Daryl Griffiths, working from Collingwood House on Whiting Street, a mile from the abbey where the Barons of England swore the Magna Carta oath in 1214.
A general high-street practice with conveyancing and wills as its spine, family law and disputes alongside, all taken from one front door on Whiting Street. Four directors, eight named lawyers, three regulators across the team.
Freehold and leasehold purchase, sale, transfer of equity, re-mortgage; new-build acquisitions; commercial property. Three solicitors plus a Council-of-Licensed-Conveyancers-regulated licensed conveyancer under Miranda Mortlock LLB (SRA 338525, the firm's COLP). Varsha Goyal Wright specialises in new-build purchases with trusted relationships with East Anglian property developers. Free client parking on site at Collingwood House.
Will drafting, lasting powers of attorney, obtaining probate and full administration of estates. Margaret Henrietta Ann Brett LLB (SRA 23527, a five-digit roll number issued in the early 1980s) leads the wills desk; Jane McIlroy ACILEX brings twenty years in probate as the firm's Chartered Paralegal Probate Executive. Members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) on the team.
Divorce and separation, financial settlements (including pension sharing and second-family arrangements), arrangements for children, family-home matters. Joanne Matthews LLB (SRA 163839, Head of Family Law) supervises, a Resolution member committed to the non-confrontational code. Melanie Stafford, a Chartered Institute of Legal Executives lawyer (separately regulated by CILEX) sits alongside on the family desk.
Civil disputes, contested probate, neighbour and property disputes, debt recovery and contract claims for individuals and small businesses. Paul Herbert LLB (SRA 629575) leads the disputes desk, with Sonja Williams (formerly Managing Partner of Partridge & Wilson before that firm merged into Burnett Barker in October 2012) contributing the longer-form institutional memory of the merged practice. Fixed-fee initial consultations available.
The motto of Bury St Edmunds is "Shrine of the King, Cradle of the Law". It refers to two things: the shrine of King Edmund, England's first patron saint, and the November 1214 meeting at which Cardinal Stephen Langton and 25 Barons of England met at the high altar of the Abbey Church of St Edmund and swore to compel King John to ratify the Charter of Liberties. That oath, sworn a mile from Collingwood House, led directly to Magna Carta being sealed at Runnymede on 15 June 1215.
The 1849 commemorative stone tablet on the ruined pier of the Abbey Church records the moment in legible verse: "Near this spot on the 20th November A.D. 1214, Cardinal Langton & the Barons swore at St Edmund's altar that they would obtain from King John the ratification of Magna Charta." It is one of the more direct continuities a practising English solicitor can claim with the document that is the foundation of the work.
We do not trade on this every day. The conveyancing files do not become more Norman because of it, and the family law does not become more thirteenth-century. But on Whiting Street, with the Abbey ruins ten minutes' walk away and the Norman Tower visible from the end of the road, it does feel worth saying once: we practise the law of England in the town that helped write it.
The stone tablet photographed alongside is the original, still in place on the ruined pier of the Abbey Church, photographed by David Dixon and licensed for reuse on Geograph.
The firm was founded in 1979 by Robin Burnett and David Barker, who took premises on Hatter Street in the centre of Bury St Edmunds to provide individuals and small businesses with professional yet straightforward legal services. The first thirty-three years quietly built the practice that exists today.
On 1 October 2012, Burnett Barker absorbed Partridge & Wilson, in the firm's own words from the time, "a long-established firm of solicitors, also based in Bury St Edmunds and believed to be at least 200 years old". Sonja Williams, formerly Partridge & Wilson's Managing Partner, joined the disputes team and is still on it thirteen years later. The merger pulled an institutional thread back to a Bury practice contemporary with the Regency era.
On 1 January 2016, a management buyout led by Daryl Griffiths transitioned the firm to its second generation of ownership. Burnett Barker Solicitors Limited was authorised by the SRA under number 621676 as a recognised body for all legal services. On 18 July of the same year, after thirty-four years on Hatter Street, the office moved up the road to Collingwood House on Whiting Street, gaining dedicated client parking for the first time.
"A long-established firm of solicitors, also based in Bury St Edmunds and believed to be at least 200 years old." Burnett Barker, on Partridge & Wilson at the 2012 merger
Burnett Barker Solicitors Limited is run by four directors, each holding their own SRA number and supervising a distinct part of the practice. Continuity of name means the person who first reads your enquiry is the person whose desk the file sits on through to completion.
Led the 2016 management buyout that transitioned the firm to its second generation of ownership. Twenty years in the legal sector. Holds overall responsibility for the financial running of the firm and is the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA). The buck on funding, fees and supplier relationships stops at his desk.
Heads the residential conveyancing department and is the firm's Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP). Supervises freehold and leasehold purchase, sale, transfer of equity, re-mortgage and new-build acquisitions across Suffolk and West Suffolk. Three solicitors and a licensed conveyancer report into the conveyancing desk.
Heads the family law department. Divorce and separation, financial settlements (including pension sharing and second-family arrangements), arrangements for children, family-home matters. Resolution member, committed to non-confrontational resolution. Supported by Melanie Stafford, CILEX-qualified family lawyer separately regulated by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
Director and residential conveyancing solicitor, appointed to the board in October 2019 alongside Joanne Matthews. Handles residential freehold, leasehold and transfer-of-equity files, with a particular focus on second-home and second-family acquisitions across Suffolk and the West Suffolk villages.
Three views of the town the firm sits in. The medieval street, the abbey where Magna Carta was sworn for, and the Norman Tower the abbey gateway has guarded for nine hundred years.
A short enquiry form for an initial response by telephone or email. Once we understand the matter we can quote a fixed fee where the work supports it, or hourly with an estimated total where it does not. We say so in writing either way.
The office sits in Collingwood House on Whiting Street, in the centre of Bury St Edmunds, four hundred metres from the Norman Tower and ten minutes' walk from the Abbey ruins.
Collingwood House
20 Whiting Street
Bury St Edmunds
IP33 1NX
Yes. On 1 October 2012, Burnett Barker absorbed Partridge & Wilson, in the firm's own words 'a long-established firm of solicitors, also based in Bury St Edmunds and believed to be at least 200 years old'. All Partridge & Wilson client files, deeds and stored documents transferred to Burnett Barker's safekeeping at the time. Sonja Williams, formerly Partridge & Wilson's Managing Partner, is still on the disputes team thirteen years later.
No. With effect from 1 October 2024, the firm formally withdrew from the DX Exchange and does not accept service of court documents by email. Service must be by hard copy delivered to Collingwood House, 20 Whiting Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1NX. This is a procedural change other solicitors instructing the firm should note.
Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00. A voicemail service runs outside those hours. There is dedicated client parking on site at Collingwood House, which was one of the reasons we moved here from the old Hatter Street office in July 2016. If you are calling at peak times there may be a short wait until your call is answered, please be patient, we do want to talk to you.
Burnett Barker Solicitors Limited is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA 621676, as a recognised body authorised for all legal services. Licensed Conveyancer work in the conveyancing department is additionally regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (Katy Raven is our Licensed Conveyancer). CILEX-qualified family and probate lawyers (Melanie Stafford and Jane McIlroy) are separately regulated by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives. Three regulators, one office.
No. We work to a fixed scope agreed in writing on day one, with one full round of revisions before launch and thirty days of free post-launch tweaks. You see the rebuild working on a staging URL before the DNS cutover, and the source code transfers to you on day sixty so you own everything outright. There is no retainer, no contract, and no commitment until the staging URL passes your eye.