Watkins & Gunn Solicitors has announced a series of promotions strengthening its senior management team.
The firm that has offices in Pontypool, Cardiff, and Newport has promoted an Associate to Senior Associate and three Solicitors to Associates.
As Head of Property, Sally Roberts has been promoted to Senior Associate following eight years with the firm. She specialises in commercial conveyancing and all aspects of residential conveyancing, including sales, purchases, remortgages and transfers of equity, and successfully led the firm’s Property Team to secure to the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation – one of the first three firms in Wales to achieve this.
A finalist in this year’s Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) awards, Lindsay Taylor becomes an Associate at the firm. Since qualifying as a solicitor in 2007, Ms Taylor has built up extensive experience in all areas of family law and her experience as a Police station duty solicitor provides her with a close working knowledge of the criminal justice system and an additional perspective. Her skill in acting for victims of domestic abuse, including Children Act proceedings, has recently seen her being appointed as a trustee for Torfaen Women’s Aid.
Personal Injury specialist Lisa Guscott is now Associate having started at the firm in 2003 during her studies. Lisa is a Member of the Law Society’s Personal Injury Panel and also individually accredited by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and highlighted as a rising star in the Chambers and Partners, one of the leading guides to the legal profession. She has a very high success rate of over 90% representing clients dealing with accidents at work, slip and trip cases, road traffic accidents, actions against the police and more recently negligent cosmetic surgery claims.
Kate Roberts a member of the firm’s Family Law team also becomes an Associate. A certified Children’s Representative able to act for children through court appointed guardians in all proceedings where there is provision to do so, Kate is experienced in handling complex child care cases and is recognised as a specialist member of both the Law Society’s Children’s Panel and their Family Panel.
Commenting on the promotions, Clive Thomas, Managing Partner of Watkins & Gunn Solicitors, said: “The firm has gone from strength to strength over the past few years despite the tough financial climate and this is down to our talented team. We have worked extremely hard to create a culture of continuous improvement within the firm to achieve our aim of constantly ‘exceeding our client’s expectations’. We have concentrated on developing, nurturing and investing in our talented workforce so that they can continue to deliver an exceptional service to our clients.
“Sally, Lindsay, Kate and Lisa have all played an important role in our success and their promotions are richly deserved and a testament to their hard work.”
The firm was recognised for creating a happy, healthy and skilled workforce as a finalist in the People Development category of the Business in the Community (BITC) Wales Impact Awards, part of the Awards for Excellence 2012.