The Gildeas Story

Testimonials

The Gildeas Story

Gildeas came into being in 1989, named after Scottish lawyer James Gildea. Son of a labourer he was sent to Donegal as a baby to live with his Irish granny so he would be safe during the Second World War.

He returned aged five in 1945 to live with his parents in Glasgow’s Gorbals, not knowing a word of English. That soon changed and his education took him to study engineering at Strathclyde University. While there, he became British and Irish university boxing champ at 9.5-stones, a competition for students everywhere. Lawyer son John, who has now joined Gildeas himself, said: “Jimmy used to like punching his opponents from Oxford and Cambridge best! Among the spectators were Labour politicians John Smith and Donald Dewar…both students then.”

James decided engineering wasn’t for him and went to work as an office junior in a law firm. He qualified as a full-time lawyer after years of night school at Glasgow University. After a short spell in Banff, James got a job doing legal work for East Kilbride Council and then became Monklands town clerk in the ‘60s.

“Jimmy claimed to be one of the last people to actually ‘read the riot act’,” says John. “There was some kind of disturbance going on in the town and, no doubt flanked by plenty of policemen, read from the 1886 Riot Act ordering the crowd to disperse.”

When his local government career came to an early end James set up Gildeas in an office in Ballieston, Lanarkshire, in 1989 doing conveyancing and small injury claims. He brought a partner in but after ten years handed the reins over to Sanjeev Bali.

Initially Gildeas mainly represented clients who were involved in car accidents, required conveyancing assistance or required assistance with debt recovery matters. The firm grew steadily, thanks to Sanjeev, building up strong relationships with both local and national corporate bodies.

Due to the diverse and increasing volume of work, Sanjeev decided to open offices in Edinburgh, mainly dealing with complex injury cases at the Court of Session, and another in Glasgow city centre. It is still expanding. Gildeas are proud to now act for clients across the whole of the UK and in particular have a strong presence in the Scottish Courts. For a full list of the areas of law we cover, please check under Services.