Leeds family lawyer Marilyn Stowe was violently attacked 17 years ago today - but it helped her to grow the UK’s largest specialist family law firm

Two strong people couldn’t work in the same office and so when Marilyn Stowe and her husband Graham tried to work together, it only lasted for a week.

Instead, in 1982, she opened an office in East Leeds carrying out general legal work.

The converted cobbler’s shop in Holton then became the home to the beginning of Mrs Stowe’s family law career, where she started to grow from legal aid clients to specialising and attracting big cases.

She said: “I was at an advantage, there weren’t many female lawyers at the time and I started to grow out of the cobbler’s shop office and so instead I moved to a purpose built one down the road in about 1997.

“We never thought we would fill it with people but we did and we started to get quite a high national profile.

“By 2003 we were a very substantial business in East Leeds.”

But on December 3 in 2003, the family lawyer was met by three masked, armed men waiting for her in the car park of her Stowe Family Law office.

Mrs Stowe said: “One had an iron bar and I just can’t forget it, he kept shouting to the other two ‘kick her head in’ and all I could think about was my son.

“How on earth would he manage without a mother?

“I stayed incredibly calm, I think from my professional training, and I said ‘don’t do that, take my handbag instead, there’s cash and other things in there, you’ll want that’.

“Thank goodness people then heard what was going on and they ran off.”

Mrs Stowe was unable to walk properly for a while, was badly bruised and suffered from severe mental trauma after the attack.

The mother-of-one added: “Don’t ask me how but I went back to work the next day because I had a law firm to run.

“I realised I couldn’t keep working there when I saw a man a few days later and I’m pretty sure it was one of the three.

“It was terrifying and I don’t know if it was or wasn’t him but I thought it was”

Mrs Stowe closed the office soon after the attack and made the move to Harrogate, having to find all of her admin staff new jobs and taking with her only the solicitors who were happy to move.

The move was a success and the firm was mentioned in a court report about how their arrival in Harrogate had significantly increased the work of Harrogate County Court.

The Alwoodley-resident added: “I thought, if it works in Leeds and Harrogate, why can’t it work anywhere else and over time I opened up in Hale in Cheshire, back in Leeds City Centre, central London, around the M25 and in Wilmslow.

“I discovered that actually our brand was strong enough for me not to be in each place physically.”

It was then in 2016 that Mrs Stowe was approached by a private equity firm who had been watching her progress for four years.

When they bought her Stowe Family Law firms, she had two weeks to get out and couldn’t practise for three years as part of the deal not to compete.

Mrs Stowe then went on to open the London Stock Exchange in 2019 where her baby granddaughter was the youngest child ever to have stood on the balcony.

She said: “I couldn’t believe what was happening, it was the international Jewish business women’s launch and I was surrounded by such incredibly successful women who had come all the way from places like San Francisco and Jerusalem.

“And out of the terrible experience 17 years ago today where I really was lucky to escape with my life - that happened.

“If it wasn’t for the attack I wouldn’t have moved to Harrogate to escape the trauma.”

Mrs Stowe said that she still finds the experience traumatic and gets nervous if she hears people coming fast behind her or if she sees abuse towards other women.

She added: “I was determined and I coped with it and my husband was so supportive throughout it all.

“Out of bad comes good and I would never have founded the UK’s largest specialist family law firm if it weren’t for the attack.”

Stowe Family Law now has offices all over the country.