1980 - 1990The early days
Diarmuid McKeown established his initial practice in his hometown of Lurgan, Co. Armagh where he had completed his training with Gallery & Campbell. The practice was very widely based. He describes his experience of that time as “becoming an expert in every field of law for a day” such was the variety of cases with which he was presented by his clients. On any given day he might simultaneously have to deal with a divorce, a murder and a lease. His area of practice included Conveyancing, Family, Wills & Probate, Criminal Law, Litigation, Licensing and Commercial Law. In 1990 he left practice for a short period to pursue a career in Financial Services which he did not enjoy and decided to travel to London to seek out opportunities in legal practice in a new jurisdiction.
1992 - 1998Venturing abroad
In 1992, after practising in London for a year specialising in Civil Litigation, Diarmuid recognised the benefits to be achieved for both lawyers and clients in creating a specialist practice. With the support of RAC Legal Services he commenced a new practice in St Albans on the northwest perimeter of London which concentrated on Personal Injury and almost exclusively Road Traffic Accidents. The business grew steadily throughout the 90’s as a result of his reputation for outstanding service to clients. In turn, new relationships were built with motor and legal expenses insurers who were pleased to introduce their customers to the firm. (full article)
1998 - 2009Expansion, growth and the return home
At the request of one of the practice’s insurer clients, Endsleigh Insurance, McKeowns set up a new practice in Armagh to represent accident victims throughout the province. Shortly after that due to difficulty in recruiting staff locally around St Albans a decision was taken to open an office in Milton Keynes. Throughout the life of the practice attention has always been placed on the use of technology and this helped to enable steady year on year growth. In 2003 the Armagh operation was moved to Newry.
2009 - 2019Newry, Belfast and Beyond
In 2017, Chris Stevens joined Diarmuid as a partner, having started with the practice as a junior in the St Albans Office in 1997. Chris made the suggestion to move operations to Belfast in order to expand upon the traditional strengths of the practice and to make use of those strengths in other areas of legal practice. Diarmuid was enthused by this new initiative and since moving the practice now provides Private Client services in the fields of Conveyancing and Wills & Probate. The spacious new premises in Law Society House also allow the practice to offer their space for Networking activities.