Category: Stowe Family Law

In honour of International Women’s Day, on the blog we look at the role of women in law and how the industry is changing to meet the needs of the modern lawyer, male or female.

Statistics released in June last year revealed that for the first time, the number of working solicitors in England and Wales has exceeded that of men – now 50.1% up from 43.4% in 2007. *

So, is the age of the male-dominated law industry over?

When Rachel Roberts, Managing Partner of the Stowe Family Law office in Leeds graduated she began her career with a strong, female mentor so believed that “anything seemed possible”. In fact, Rachel did not even consider her gender to “have an impact until I had children.”

Having children and finding balance is a struggle many women in law face and is reflected in the statistics when we look at seniority in the industry with women making up just 33% of partners in the UK (up from 31% in 2014). **

Times are changing 

But there are signs of change. A number of firms have signed up to The Law Society’s diversity and inclusion charter and the profession is becoming more flexible and fairer.

It’s a change that Stowe agrees with as we are committed to moving away from a traditional model to a model of flexibility and empowerment to help reduce pressure and strain.

“I am lucky to work for a firm that prioritises the well-being of its staff and I work flexible hours so that I can still do the school run 3 days a week and attend school events,” says Rachel. Currently, over 50% of the leadership team and Managing Partners work flexibly.

But it is not just about Managing Partners, “I am a great believer in trusting your team to manage their own diaries, workloads and work from home to allow them to meet their family commitments” she adds.

“For me, it is about putting boundaries in place, so I will work sometimes at home in the evening, but my weekends are precious, and my work phone is switched off or out of sight.”

Glass ceiling?

In 2017, Lady Justice Heather Hallett spoke of her hopes that there was no glass ceiling and that the law had changed considerably for the better for women. A sentiment that is reflected in the fact that 66% of all partners at Stowe and 70% of lawyers are female.

“Family law tends to attract more women, in fact, the team in Leeds is all-female and it’s really important that we find ways to work around family commitments so that we retain our talent,” continues Rachel.

“I have not encountered any obstacles to progressing up the career ladder because I am a woman, but I work at Stowe and we have a large number of women in senior roles. I am not sure how much flexibility there is in larger law firms.”

Her advice to women considering entering law now is simple “There is no limit to what you can achieve. The culture is changing, although in big firms it has a long way to go. So, get involved with organisations that care about retaining women in practice, and focus on well-being.”

“However, the whole sector now needs to change – men equally need to be able to have a healthy work-life balance and spend quality time with their friends and family.”

Rachel is Managing Partner of the Stowe Family Law Leeds office. She is also an ambassador for Women in the Law, a non-profit women’s networking organisation designed to encourage, inspire and support the next generation of lawyers and women in business.

*Law Society Annual Statistics Report 

**Solicitors Regulation Authority

The post International Women’s Day: The rise of women in law appeared first on Stowe Family Law.

Now

It was with great pride that, last week, three more of our lawyers were awarded Resolution’s specialist accreditation in complex financial remedies and private children law.

Nine of our lawyers now hold specialist accreditation, which demonstrates expertise in achieving the very best results for their client with a conciliatory approach to avoid costly and hostile court proceedings, where possible. It is our ambition to have the highest number of accredited lawyers in the country with more of our team applying each year.

For me, family law at its base level is about two people – a client, and their lawyer. Trust is the foundation of this relationship. The client must trust their lawyer to advise on what is possible, build and deliver a strategy using the most effective approach, that will deliver the best possible outcome. In turn, the lawyer must trust their client to be totally open and honest at all times and to follow their advice. Without this, the relationship simply won’t work.

As Chief Executive, it is my role to have a clear vision for the future of Stowe and to set, execute, and continually refine the strategy to get us there. My vision centres on the client/lawyer relationship and ensuring that we can deliver the very best advice to our clients as we continue to grow as a firm, without ever compromising on quality.

Our strategy is driven by three objectives:

• First, to create a compelling proposition that enables us to attract and retain the best specialist family lawyers and support staff in the country.
• Second, to attract a broad range of clients with circumstances ranging from a relatively simple divorce to highly complex cases (often involving high-net-worth clients with complex business and asset structures and international elements).
• Third, to have a network of offices throughout the country, accessible for our clients, and with an environment that puts them at ease.

To identify the best lawyers, I established an in-house talent acquisition team. They understand the firm’s culture and, as they know all our current lawyers, have a deep understanding of the type of lawyer that will excel at Stowe. This is critical, especially when opening a new office. In fact, I have taken the decision not to open in locations when the talent team have told me that they have not found the right lawyer.

Once we have identified lawyers that we want on our team, we have a compelling proposition to join us. Naturally, we offer a highly competitive remuneration package, but more importantly, we have the culture and supportive environment that enables our lawyers to flourish; giving them the autonomy and freedom to manage their caseload, supported by the latest technology and surrounded by other excellent lawyers under the supervision of our Senior Partner.

The strength of the firm’s brand attracts a breadth of clients to the firm which complements our lawyers’ natural ability to attract clients through their reputation and personal networks.

I believe that it is critical to invest in our lawyers, whether it is supporting them to specialise in an area of family law (such as children, surrogacy, high net worth, multi-jurisdiction), or enabling them to develop their natural approach, be it through Resolution specialist accreditation, mediation, arbitration, or promoting their advocacy skills. I regularly consult with my Senior Partner on new developments in the law and the services we offer have continued to flourish and expand over the last two years and will continue to do so. We will never be a firm that is content to stand still.

Culturally, we are a hard-working, friendly bunch. There are no silos, no closed doors, and no egos, just a group of like-minded professionals striving to be the best they can be and working tirelessly to get their clients the best result possible with minimal stress, disruption, and cost. We have no other disciplines that compete for investment or budgets, and as I feel it is vital to be a true meritocracy, there are no barriers or quotas to promotion – a lawyer is promoted based on ability and ability alone.

The future

Over the coming years, my focus is to build on the successful office expansion programme that now sees us with 18 offices across England and nearly 70 family lawyers. However, we will only ever recruit lawyers and support staff that have the ability, attitude, and approach that my Senior Partner and I believe is good enough for a client of Stowe Family Law.

This is one of the reasons why I only ever open offices from scratch and will not acquire other practices. The best lawyers will usually be spread across a number of firms in the area.

Our blend of exceptional specialist lawyers and high-quality client care will continue to lead the market. Working to deliver our strategy and aims will be important in the years ahead, and I am confident we will make good progress.

We have invested heavily in recent years in our IT infrastructure to ensure that our lawyers have the ability to work in a flexible way, service the ever-changing needs of our clients, and be at the forefront of the law in a digital era.

In times of market and wider change, our focus on the client/lawyer relationship will remain at the heart of what we do. This and our culture of empowerment and enablement will continue to set us apart from other firms both now and in the future.

Charles Hartwell, CEO

@CharlesHartwell

The post Now & the future: working with Stowe by CEO, Charles Hartwell appeared first on Stowe Family Law.

It’s that time again for the annual review as commentators across the world look at the good, the bad and the unforgettable moments of 2018.

This year brought us a heatwave, a World Cup, political chaos over Brexit by the bucket load and Donald Trump gaslighting America with his fake news and lies. (You can read more in my article here.)

For Stowe, 2018 has been a pivotal year in the growth and development of our business. I have shared the best bits with you below.

We started the new year with a new solicitor Cheryl Grace our Harrogate team.

In February we opened our 14th office in Bristol, welcoming Jemma Slavin, Rachel Fisher and the team to the business. They have certainly hit the ground running, building an impressive reputation in a stunning office (it definitely wins the prize for most beautiful building), developing community ties and Rachel was recognised with her nomination for Junior Lawyer of the Year at the Bristol Legal Awards.

In March and April, we expanded our team in London with solicitor Roz Lidder and in Winchester, with Senior Solicitor Paul Linsdell joining us. We also promoted seven staff internally at the end of another successful financial year.

In May, Emma Newman, the Managing Partner in our Esher office was recognised for her exceptional work with a nomination for the Lawyer of the Year at the SLS Awards.

As the heatwave continued in June, we moved our Wilmslow team into larger premises to accommodate the growing team. It is now in a much more convenient location opposite the station with free parking available to clients. In the capital, we opened our second London office at the prestigious address of 128 Buckingham Palace Road, just a 3-minute walk from Victoria Station and headed up by Phoebe Turner. Back up north, a new solicitor, Camilla Burton-Baddeley joined the team in Altrincham.

In July, our team expansion continued with a new Senior Solicitor, Sarah Hodges joining the team in Esher whilst in Reading, we opened our 15th office and welcomed Naheed Taj who was joined by Mark Chapman, a Partner from our Winchester office. The office is located at One Valpy and overlooks the beautiful Forbury Gardens.

In Leeds, the Stowe team moved offices to the Minerva buildings in the heart of the city due to a growing team. It now has ten lawyers (including myself) and is the largest family team in the city. Down in St Albans, Senior Solicitor Bindu Bansal joined the team whilst over in the new London Victoria office, Solicitor Jonathan Day joined the team.

I also had the pleasure of participating in the Ride London 100-mile bike ride for Beating Bowel cancer. Despite several months of training in glorious sunshine, the big day itself experienced rainfall of biblical proportions. I guess that added to the fun!

At the beginning of August and peak holiday time, we had the great news we had been shortlisted for three Yorkshire Legal Awards (we went on to win two but more about that later. This month also saw two new appointments at the Manchester office with Michelle Ashworth joining us as Senior Solicitor and Gareth Curtis, promoted to Managing Partner.

As the schools went back in September, it was a month of new starters across the firm. Solicitor Rebecca Coates joined our Tunbridge Wells office, Surrogacy specialist and Solicitor Bethan Cleal joined Winchester and Solicitor Rachel Darrell, joined the Manchester office. At the end of the month, Solicitor Hannah Ross joined the team in Leeds.

Not to be outdone, Charles, our Chief Executive entered an endurance event, a mountain marathon, running some 40 miles up, down and all over the Lake District in baking heat.

October brought autumn and some slightly cooler weather. It also saw Matthew Miles; a new Senior Solicitor join the Harrogate team and Senior Solicitor Kaleel Anwar join the Manchester office.  In Nottingham, we opened our first office in The Midlands. Headed up by Sushma Kotecha, the office became our 17th office in the UK.

This month also saw us meet in Birmingham for the Stowe annual conference.  With a year-on-year increase in the company’s lawyer team of 40%, there were lots of new faces to meet. At the conference, we launched our mental health awareness initiative which will see a Mental Health First Aider or Champion trained and in place in each of our offices.  We were also joined by four good friends and highly esteemed barristers from 1 Kings Bench Walk who presented on a wide variety of topical family law subjects including Philip Marshall QC talking about his involvement in the Owens case and James Turner QC talking about the Waggott case. Our afternoon team building event was great fun though somehow, I ended up wrapped like a mummy in loo roll. Though my team also won!

In the middle of October, we celebrated winning two awards at the Yorkshire Legal Awards: Family Law Firm of the Year and The Rising Star Award for Solicitor Charlotte Newman. It was a great pleasure to receive this recognition for the Yorkshire teams and shows the great progress we have made in enhancing our reputation as a team to be reckoned with that delivers excellent service and results for our clients.

I also took great pride in watching Charlotte receive her award having trained her through her training contract. Having been a trainee in the firm myself and seeing so many of our former trainees become managing partners or partners in the firm it’s fantastic that we are building a strong foundation for the future.

And finally, at the end of October, we launched our specialist domestic and international surrogacy law service whilst attending the National Fertility Show. Family law has so many facets to it. Divorce and relationship breakdown is upsetting and disruptive though we try our best to help people look towards a brighter future, however our adoption and surrogacy work are also incredibly rewarding for our lawyers as well as life-changing for our clients.

November brought another award win as we successfully won the Law Firm of the Year at the Elite Business Awards in Leeds. We welcomed Solicitor Maria Coster to the new team in Nottingham and in Birmingham, we opened our 18th office, our second in The Midlands this year. Headed up by Rebecca Calden-Storr and joined by Shelley De’Worringham shortly afterwards, the team is already making inroads into the market and establishing a name for itself.

And now, before we know it, we are nearing the end of December. Having the time to sit back and take stock makes us all realise what we have achieved and what a remarkable year it has been for us.

What I am particularly proud of is that we have a strong team spirit with no egos. Everybody in the firm is valued for the role they play and contributes to the success of the business. We are all committed to helping our clients and each other.

As the largest family law firm in the UK, we will continue to push the boundaries of excellent service and results for our clients across the whole country. As we continue to grow in 2019, we will be supported by the significant resources of a national firm but delivered at a local level.

But it is not just about us. Throughout the year we have worked hard to give something back to the communities where we have offices. We have sponsored youth cricket clubs, the Ilkley Literary Festival, Wetherby Stage Stars, The Winchester Hat Festival, St Albans Film Festival and the Reading Santa walk.

Our people have run half-marathons, walked 10K’s, ridden 100 miles, collected Christmas gifts, baby clothes and travelled to Kenya, all to raise money for charities including St Michael’s Hospice, The Sick Children’s Trust, make a Will month, Little Bundles, Save the Children and the Alzheimer’s Society.

So, what will 2019 bring us, well that would be telling so keep watching this space.

Lastly, may I thank you as readers of this blog for your loyal following and wishing you all a peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Julian

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