Established by directors Nama Zarroug and Matt Reynolds, the practice will provide legal advice and services to high net worth individuals as well as consulting for other law firms. Tony McDonough reports

A new boutique legal firm has opened in Liverpool providing legal advice and services to high net worth individuals as well as specialising in monitoring and premises licence retention.

Based at Avenue HQ close to the waterfront, Astraea Legal has set up by Nama Zarroug, previously partner and head of criminal law at Kirwans, and Matt Reynolds, who headed up the Just Motor Law team group.

Ms Zarroug specialises in criminal defence and regulatory litigation. With more than 15 years’ legal experience, she splits her time between the Liverpool and London offices where she works on significant and complex defence cases.

Mr Reynolds, is an expert road traffic lawyer who previously caused a national uproar with his discovery that numbers on electronic speed signs on English motorways were the wrong shape resulting in motorists convictions being overturned.

“We’ve been working furiously over the last few months to launch Astraea Legal as a fully authorised and regulated licensed legal practice,” said Ms Zarroug.

“There’s been a huge amount of red tape we’ve had to battle through, whilst continuing to consult nationally and internationally for some big name commercial practices on matters of criminal and regulatory litigation.

“Now we’re looking forward to concentrating on providing the one-to-one personal legal service so many law firms struggle to provide to their clients.”

Astraea also offers a niche legal consulting service for law firms involved in complex and high profile legal cases. The organisation’s expertise in dealing with cases that attract considerable media attention and public interest is often called upon by law firms which are unable to handle them themselves in house.