In Memoriam: Sheridans' Former Managing Partner, Cyril Glasser, Dies Aged 68
The firm's previous Managing Partner, Cyril Glasser, sadly passed away on 5th May. The following tribute is from his Memorial Service which took place at the weekend.
“I first met Cyril in 1978 when I was a young solicitor, Bernard Sheridan, the founder of Sheridans, re-recruited Cyril who had originally trained with him. Cyril had spent some years at the Lord Chancellor’s office but had decided that private practice was more to his liking.
Cyril and I were then partners in the practice for some twenty years together, with Cyril running the litigation department and ultimately becoming Managing Partner before retiring in 2001.
As I became Head of the Music department and Cyril was Head of Litigation, we worked together on many high profile cases and I really came to appreciate Cyril’s skills as a lawyer but also that he was a really kind and helpful person.
Cyril was great with young people in the office and had a genuine ‘open door’ policy to anyone who had a problem, however small. He was never pompous and delighted in helping many a young solicitor (including me) enhance their skills. Cyril was also a great strategic thinker and whatever case we had together I always felt confident that Cyril had the intellect to get to the heart of any matter and convince the Court of the correctness of our client’s position.
Cyril was also a fantastic Managing Partner to work with and I have learnt much from the way that he lead our practice until his retirement. When Cyril took over Sheridans in the early 1990’s there were many problems that he had to wrestle with, new systems that needed to be introduced and (as ever) partners to deal with. Cyril worked tirelessly on all these areas and more, and helped shape the practice to what it has become today.
I am sure many of you will remember Cyril as I do before his debilitating illness took hold and as a fearless, clever and considerate person with a love and respect for the law and the people in it; he will be sorely missed.
Finally, I would like to relate a story that I feel shows what it was like to work with Cyril and how his lateral thought process was good to have available.
I had a music group as a client who were, at that time in the 1980’s, probably the biggest pop act in the world. One of the members had left the group and had threatened the others with all sorts of dire consequences if they failed to settle his claims. The dispute involved not only the act but also the managers and the record company but Cyril’s skill in litigating resulted in a settlement meeting being arranged at the record company with, of course, a multitude of people arguing their points until late in the night. At that point, Cyril asked his assistant to go out to McDonalds and buy food which he was told to put at the end of the room where everyone, tired and hungry, could smell the aroma of chips and burgers. Cyril would not allow anyone to eat until the matter was settled which it was within half an hour – genius!”
Howard Jones
Managing Partner
SHERIDANS