Expanding Our Legal Solutions Offering: Matt Booth Joins Strata Solicitors as Head of Costs

By: Chris Sturridge-Packer Matt Booth

Recently, Strata Solicitors — a Gallagher Bassett Company — announced the appointment of Head of Costs Matt Booth. He fills a newly created role that leads the firm's expansion, offering a new legal costs service.

Following his appointment, we sat down with Matt and Chris Sturridge-Packer, director of Strata Solicitors to discuss the firm's new capabilities, some challenges legal departments face in the current market and their shared vision for the future.

Q: Matt, tell us a little about yourself and your experience. Why have you chosen to accept this role with Strata Solicitors?

Matt: I started my career at DLA Piper in 2002 and now have over two decades of experience in legal costs. Since then, I've held senior roles at Just Costs Solicitors and Waring & Co, where I focused on building successful internal costs departments and developing strong client bases across both claimant and defendant firms. Earlier this year, I founded MJB Legal Costs Ltd with Strata Solicitors as my primary client. The strength of the relationship between our two firms led to this appointment and was the driving force behind the move to bring legal costs in-house for Strata and Gallagher Bassett.

I'm excited to join Strata and Gallagher Bassett in this new role. I've worked closely with Chris and his team for some time now and am looking forward to establishing our costs department to expand the services our clients can access.

Q: Chris, how do you see Matt and his experience in legal costs fitting into the team?

Chris: We're excited to welcome Matt to the team. His appointment gives us greater capacity to deliver excellent outcomes for our clients — both in recovering costs and in maximising reductions in opponents' costs. Our team is committed to understanding each client's core needs and goals, which enables us to apply our expertise more effectively and pursue the right outcome for every case. As Matt mentioned, we already have a well-established working relationship and we both hold ourselves to high standards. His appointment brings Strata Solicitors one step closer to our aim of offering clients the full range of legal solutions when they choose us as their trusted partner.

Q: What are the advantages of establishing an in-house costs department?

Chris: By bringing costs drafting in-house, clients will receive a more comprehensive level of service throughout the lifecycle of a claim — from inception to cost recovery or cost reduction. The move also embeds Matt's expertise within the business, giving both clients of Strata and Gallagher Bassett wider access to his insights and support.

Matt: The legal costs service is another piece of the puzzle for insurers looking for comprehensive claims and litigation management from a single provider. We can now offer clients end-to-end service, through management, recovery, and negotiation of costs. This service includes supporting both internal and external solicitors in matters of cost recovery and addressing opponents' costs when cases are settled and costs require determination.

Q: What challenges are you seeing in the market that necessitate the creation of your legal costs service?

Matt: Most legal departments today face mounting pressure to juggle multiple demands while ensuring efficiency. Our legal costs service delivers significant time savings by managing cases proactively and supplying regular progress updates. This service allows our clients to concentrate on claims handling, confident that costs are being expertly managed and reducing the administrative burden of overseeing every detail themselves.

Chris: Our legal costs service addresses market challenges by providing specialist technical advice essential for reducing costs for paying parties. Expert drafting and negotiation skills are core to our service, and we aim to maximise cost recoveries for receiving parties. By embedding these capabilities alongside the existing legal solutions offered by Gallagher Bassett, we help clients achieve better financial outcomes at every stage of the process.

Q: With an integrated legal costs service, how do you see the future of Strata Solicitors?

Matt: I accepted the role because Chris and I are so aligned in our vision for what makes for a good specialist legal service. Strata Solicitors have extensive experience in high-value, complex cases in a range of industries and court environments. I feel like I'm stepping into a firm with a standard of excellence, and I don't expect that to change in the future. Legal costs is just another field to excel in and I'm happy to be leading the charge.

Chris: While the addition of a legal costs service marks an exciting new chapter for Strata Solicitors, the core foundations of the firm's approach remain unchanged. We're committed to delivering a comprehensive range of legal solutions, maintaining our client-centric, outcomes-focused philosophy, and offering competitive, bespoke fee structures.

I expect our new legal costs service to further enhance the superior outcomes and consistency that clients have come to expect from Strata Solicitors and the wider Gallagher Bassett family of companies.

See also Gallagher Bassett Appoints Industry Leader to Launch In-House Legal Costs Solution.