John Eddowes liked to recall 1953 as a year of momentous events: Hillary and Tenzing conquered Everest, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, England won the Ashes, and, in September, “Legastat started.”
Michael Eddowes, a solicitor and John’s father, founded the business in Carey Street, in the heart of legal London, where we continue to operate to this day. As the Law Gazette later described it, Legastat became “Carey Street’s renowned legal copying business.”
The 1960s
The 1960s passed largely uneventfully; that is, if you ignore that a young David Jones, later known as David Bowie, recorded an early version of “A Space Oddity” in the basement using a Dictaphone borrowed from John. The song went on to become Bowie’s first UK No. 1 in 1969
By the 1970s, John was firmly involved in the business, with the press noting that the Carey Street premises housed what may have
The 1980s
In the 1980s, John did it again, bringing the Xerox 5080, the pinnacle of wide-format technology at the time, to Legastat. It was a formidable machine, so large that installing it required reinforcing the floor and removing the windows.
1990s
The 1990s marked another stage in Legastat’s evolution, with the introduction of scanning services. While scanning promised a move towards a paperless future, paper volumes continued to grow between 1990 and 2015, driven in part by the adoption of digital printing.
The 2000s & Beyond…
The turn of the century brought significant changes, setting Legastat on the path from a traditional copying business to a litigation-support provider. Coding and indexing software, alongside emerging eDiscovery technologies, were introduced. By 2009, Chris Dale’s eDisclosure Information Project was already recognising Legastat as an established player in the eDiscovery market.
In January 2012, Casian Sala, who had been with the company since 2002, joined the board of directors, marking the beginning of a new chapter in Legastat’s history. We have continued to expand our technology stack, embracing innovations such as predictive analytics, while strengthening our market presence.
Our expertise is recognised by the UK Government, with Legastat among only two providers offering core eDiscovery services across all four relevant Crown Commercial Service frameworks: RM924, RM3717, RM6203 and RM6336.
By the time Legastat celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2023, it had expanded its capabilities to include digital forensics and managed review. Today, it is one of the UK’s oldest legal support bureaus, offering end-to-end litigation support services.
Sadly, John, by then Chairman, passed away in 2025 after an extraordinary lifetime of involvement in the business. We continue to uphold the principles he instilled over the years: to keep developing and improving, to look after our people, and to ensure they, in turn, look after our clients with the utmost diligence. To be continued.