Our History

In 1867 John Pissey, a 21 year old from Hounslow, qualified as a Solicitor. He changed his name to John Copland, moved to Sheerness (he had family on the Kent coast) and set up his own office as a Solicitor (you could do that then), opening his office just before Christmas that year.

He built up a good practice and in 1888 opened his purpose built offices right in the town centre that we still occupy today.

He was joined in the early 20th century by his son Henry Copland who dedicated his whole working life there and was joined by his own son Andy Copland. All three generations of the Copland family were committed to the local community serving in many local organisations and institutions including as Mayor. In 1968 Andy was joined in partnership by John Bancroft the father of the two current partners.

Still a family business today

Today we are still a family business now in the fifth and sixth generations spread between two families of lawyers. We are still part of our local community inside and outside of work.

We act for a wide range of medium and small businesses, institutions, families and individuals, mostly with a connection to Sheppey and the North Kent area. Whilst most of our work involves, buying, selling, managing and dealing with disputes over property, trusts, estates, divorce, personal injury and consumer, we still conduct some criminal defence and some family and child care based work. Our work is hugely varied and we are proud to be a genuine general practice able to tackle a wide range of problems for the community we serve.