Here are the new generation of lawyers and accountants is making its mark in Wales.
The 30 young professionals listed here are some of the faces to watch in the coming years. It's by no means a definitive list but gives a snapshot of the talent that is within Wales' legal firms.
1. Huw Landry, senior associate, Eversheds Sutherland, 35
Huw specialises in rail infrastructure and has been advising clients in the rail sector for the past 10 years.
He has been advising key infrastructure clients on new stations, track and enhancement schemes. Huw is a compulsory purchase specialist and supervises a team of legal advisors that manage a multi-million pound property portfolio.
2. Charlotte Vince, senior solicitor, Blake Morgan, 32
Charlotte specialises in non-contentious construction work and acts for both public and private sector clients. In addition to her work in Wales, Charlotte is also involved in a range of projects nationwide, in particular, in London. Charlotte has experience working in the health, education, retail, social housing and banking and finance sectors. Charlotte was recently shortlisted for Junior Lawyer of the Year at the Cardiff & District Law Society Awards.
3. Aysha Chouhdary, family law solicitor at Wendy Hopkins Family Law Practice, 30
Aysha has particular experience in dealing with complicated matters which involve children and disputes between cohabitees. She can speak several languages, including Urdu, Muri, Punjabi and Hindi. Aysha is able to provide a niche service to her clients, advising on matters relating to an Islamic divorce. She is also authorised to provide advice regarding Sharia Law. In 2015 Aysha setup and founded the Asian Woman’s Professional Club.
4. Catrin Griffiths, head of wills and probate at Wendy Hopkins Family Law Practice, 33
Catrin is an associate and head of the wills and probate department at the firm. Many local charities, accountancy firms, independent financial advisors and health care professionals will directly approach Catrin and her team due to her vast knowledge and expertise of matters including: wills, probate and administration of estates, lasting powers of attorney, court of protection work including deputy applications, inheritance tax advice and sales of probate properties.
5. Craig Court, senior associate at Harding Evans Solicitors, 33
Craig has developed a niche specialism in pursuing actions against police forces, local authorities and government. Often instructed in high profile inquests, Craig also specialises in bringing actions under the Human Rights Act. He is a solicitor-advocate having gained his higher rights of audience, allowing him to represent clients in the higher courts.
6. Sara Uren, partner at Harding Evans Solicitors, 34
Over the past 10 years Sara has progressed from paralegal to partner developing skills in the area of clinical negligence. She specialises in, but is not restricted to, birth injuries (cerebral palsy and other), diagnosis errors, cosmetic surgery claims, cancer cases, nursing care, paediatric claims, psychiatric injuries and product liability cases.
7. Ben Jenkins, partner at Harding Evans Solicitors, 34
Ben has been appointed head of dispute resolution from November 2018 across all offices in Cardiff and Newport. He acts for plcs, international companies, charities, sports clubs and associations, and professional athletes. One of Ben’s clients is former Wales and British Lions Captain, Sam Warburton, to whom Ben has recently provided significant legal support for his testimonial year, which is in full swing.
8. Ewelina Wagiel, solicitor, Blake Morgan, 32
Ewelina is a Polish-qualified attorney and european lawyer registered with the SRA. Ewelina specialises in banking law, focusing on secured lending, real estate finance, project finance, acquisition finance, refinancing and syndicated loans. Ewelina provides legal advice to corporate clients, housing associations, public authorities and financial institutions.
9. Jennifer Pinder, associate in employment and immigration, Capital Law, 35
Jen works with both contentious and non-contentious employment law, representing clients at both the employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal. Jen joined Capital at the end of 2017. She has more than 12 years legal experience and over 11 years specifically advising on employment law and HR issues. A huge area of growth for the legal world will be in immigration law. Currently 6.6% of our workforce are EU nationals, and businesses need help to understand their obligations to non-British workers as the UK gears up to leave the EU. Jen will head the employment team’s business immigration offering.
10. Sarah Griffiths-Jones, head of mental health department, Reeds Cardiff, 30
Sarah is one of just 30 accredited mental health solicitors in Wales, approved by the Law Society to represent patients detained under the Mental Health Act. Sarah has experience in representing clients who face some of the most serious criminal offences in society, where case disposal under the Mental Health Act is appropriate.
11. Rhian Osborne, director and head of the commercial contracts, Greenaway Scott, 34
Rhian Osborne is a co-founder, director and head of the commercial contracts and IP team at Greenaway Scott, part of the GS Verde Group. Rhian’s expertise lies in understanding the life science and technology sectors and in-house legal practice, which she has utilised to create a successful bespoke client retainer offering. Before co-founding Greenaway Scott, she completed a degree in neuroscience, worked as a medical representative and, following qualification, worked in house at a biotechnology company.
12. Aisha Wardell, senior associate at Acuity Legal, 31
Aisha is a senior associate and a key player in the dispute resolution team at Acuity Legal. Aisha’s varied workload covers contractual disputes, shareholder/director disputes, professional negligence and reputation management. She also specialises in contentious insolvency work.
13. Emma Fuller, partner, DAC Beachcroft, 34
Emma qualified in 2009 and became credit hire manager in the Newport office of DAC Beachcroft on qualification. At that time the credit hire team consisted of four members with one insurer client. This year the team celebrates its 10-year anniversary and now has more than 90 lawyers across three locations with over 35 insurer clients. Emma was made partner in 2014 at the age of 29 and has saved her insurer clients more than £100,000,000 in 10 years.
14. Charmaine Earley, solicitor and partner, Passmores Solicitors, 31
Charmaine has for a number of years specialised in complex international children cases with a particular emphasis on child abduction in Hague Convention proceedings. Charmaine represents clients under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court, particularly in relation to wardship applications, Brussells II enforcement and cases involving permission to remove a child from the jurisdiction and requests to relocate with a child to another country. Charmaine has played an active role in the training of trainee solicitors at the firm since qualifying and has been an active player in their career development.
15. Piotr Mach, european patent attorney, Wynne-Jones IP, 30
Piotr is a european patent attorney specialising in patents and digital technology. Following his graduation from Warsaw University of Technology’s School of Electronics and Information Technology, Piotr also studied at Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon and at Bournemouth University. His skill set expands to languages – he can speak French and Polish. He advises the firm’s technology-based clients on all areas of IP, working with the Cardiff-based team to prosecute patent applications.
16. Paul James, partner and head of company and commercial at Redkite Law LLP, 35
Paul was offered partnership upon joining Redkite, in 2013, at the age of 31. Paul specialises in providing clients with legal advice in corporate and commercial matters, as well as public procurement matters. Paul has played an instrumental role in Redkite’s growth, which in the past 18 months has achieved growth of 40% with the acquisition of two solicitors firms in Carmarthen, a firm in Cardiff which has a second office in Brecon, and a firm with three offices across Gloucestershire. Redkite now has a total of 10 offices and more than 120 members of staff with 11 partners.
17. Hannah Dahill, associate director Morgan LaRoche, 35
Hannah’s recent work has included advising an organisation with revenue of £1.6bn on the impact of TUPE, advising a finance director of a company with nearly 600 employees on the implications of the Taylor Review, and advising on the dismissal of a chief executive for financial irregularity. This year, Hannah has been busy preparing clients for the GDPR and has trained more than 400 people. She has also written and produced online training, webinars and Youtube clips. She has become a board member of ateb group and vice chair of its personnel panel.
18. Leanne Thomas, corporate associate director, Greenaway Scott, 34
Leanne has overseen £30m in transactions in the past 12 months. The 34-year-old joined the firm in 2017 and was promoted to oversee the Swansea team earlier this year. Leanne’s expertise in the technology and clean energy sectors has helped the Greenaway Scott Group to diversify its client base, with the Swansea office carrying out some if its most lucrative deals this year. She has see the headcount of the Swansea office increased to 10 staff members from five.
19. Amy Roberts-Rees, solicitor, CJCH Solicitors, 32
Amy is the partner in charge of the court of protection (CoP) and mental health law department having established the offering at the firm. Amy has been a solicitor at CJCH for more than four years, and has been specialising in the areas of mental health law and court of protection for welfare for more than eight years.
20. Shaunna Rees, associate solicitor, Residential Property, JCP Solicitors, 28
Shaunna set up the successful networking group for industry professionals in the Cardiff region, No Agenda. The networking evening, which she co-hosts with fellow colleagues, attracts between 40 and 60 business professionals at each event. Experienced in all aspects of residential conveyancing, including freehold, leasehold sales and purchases, re-mortgages, new builds and unregistered land, Shaunna is recognised by the directors in her team as a rising star and is expected to continue to enjoy an impressive career at JCP.
21. Matthew Sutton, director in corporate, Greenaway Scott, 35
Matthew has led significant transactions for the Welsh Assembly, the Development Bank of Wales and Cardiff University and acted on panels for numerous banks. Since joining the firm in 2015 he has demonstrated his impressive deal making abilities, having overseen transactions in excess of £35m in the last year alone. He advised Flexicare on its acquisition of Netherlands-based Medisize from USA giant Phillips-Medisize; he also led on a large Series A investment for bitcoin/gold exchange provider Vaultoro from Frankfurt listed Finlab; and the acquisitions of German-based Brenner Medical and Australian-based JB Medical by US firm Clinical Innovations.
22. Catrin Mackie, solicitor (commercial property), Capital Law, 27
Catrin is involved in advising and representing developers in their acquisitions of various sites for residential development and advising on leasehold transactions from both a landlord and tenant perspective. She also assists in strategic relocation and redevelopment plans of higher and further educational institutions throughout Wales and has experience in dealing with their status as a charity, where applicable.
23. Rosie Le Breton, trademark attorney, Wynne-Jones IP, 29
Rosie began her career as a trademark administrator at the Jersey IP firm Lysaght, then moved on to an in-house role for fashion brand Chanel, before joining intellectual property firm Rouse. During the past year, she has undertaken numerous training and courses as part of the firm’s in-house scheme and passed the Professional Certificate in Trade Mark Practice. Thanks to her dedication to the role she is now a fully qualified trademark attorney.
24. David Moore, senior solicitor, Blake Morgan, 35
David advises primarily on disputes and risk management issues for clients from both the private and public sector. David helps clients to achieve appropriate outcomes when faced with a dispute, whether from a breakdown of a relationship, breach of contract or otherwise including pre-action, threatened or impending litigation and active court proceedings. David’s clients range from individual sole traders to plcs and large public bodies – which represents the fact that a dispute scenario can arise in many differing situations for clients of all sizes.
25. Lucy Emanuel, solicitor, commercial disputes, Capital Law, 35
Lucy is responsible for contentious and non-contentious regulatory matters, including regulatory investigations, claims involving breaches of regulations, and advising companies on compliance with regulatory requirements. Lucy advises Insurtech start-ups working on the blockchain with regulatory requirements, particularly GDPR; she’s the lead on a contractual dispute of significant public importance to the healthcare sector; she’s also the lead on a £66m claim in professional negligence funded through Capital Law’s litigation fund, Capital Disputes Finance.
26. Tim Lewis, solicitor at Bowden Jones Solicitors, 34
Tim is on the criminal law team at Bowden Jones Solicitors. He represents clients in both the magistrates and Crown Court on a regular basis including but not limited to serious violence, complex fraud and drug offences.
27. Lauren Roche, associate solicitor, Full Stop Law, 27
Lauren was one of the main contributors in winning the Age Cymru award in 2017, holding clinics for over 50’s, offering home visits and being a dementia-friendly advisor.
28. Lucy Strong, solicitor, industrial disease team, Hugh James
Lucy works in the industrial disease team at Hugh James. In addition, Lucy has strong links with the medical profession throughout Wales and is often asked to lecture medical professionals on the legal aspects affecting their roles and also to educate them on the role of compensation claims for their patients. Lucy has also been integral in setting up and supporting a number of support groups for those who suffer with lung cancer across Wales.
29. Tracey Singlehurst-Ward, partner, dispute resolution team, Hugh James,
Tracey has particular expertise in sport, IP, media and defamation cases. Since qualification, Tracey has specialised in the areas of media and defamation, intellectual property, sport and general commercial disputes. She advises sports-related clients including the Welsh Rugby Union, British Boxing Board of Control and Welsh Gymnastics. Tracey is also the legal and policy director of Welsh Gymnastics.
30. Kirsty Lambourne, senior solicitor, Thompsons Solicitors, 35
Kirsty has become one of the Thompsons Solicitors’ specialists in historic abuse cases. She also assisted with the landmark vicarious liability Supreme Court case ‘Cox v Ministry of Justice’. Since joining the company 10 years ago, Kirsty has worked on multi-track accident cases, complex disease cases and patient assault cases.
