People: Jackson Lees; N Brown; Pearson Solicitors; WHN; Anwyl Homes; Girls Out Loud
North West law firm, Jackson Lees, has boosted its capacity to further support clients with its latest Trust Corporation expansion.
The firm, which has offices across Liverpool, Manchester and Wirral, has appointed three new directors to the Jackson Lees Trust Corporation, a body set up to ensure continuity, availability and professionalism for those accessing the firm’s private client services, including Court of Protection services.
Danielle Carter, Chris Stone and Heather Horsewood have joined the board of directors, taking its total to nine members.
Launched in 2019 the Trust Corporation can act as executor, attorney, trustee or property and financial affairs deputy.
The Jackson Lees Trust Corporation means that the Court of Protection team is able to support clients with an increasingly streamlined and more flexible service moving away from the previous reliance on the practice of head of department and former panel deputy Jane MacGregor holding deputyship appointments in her personal name.
The Trust Corporation gives clients better continuity and increased efficiency from the team and brings a combined knowledge of 45 years of deputyship work experience between Jane MacGregor, Joanne McNally and the newly appointed Danielle Carter.
Joanne McNally is a director of the Trust Corporation and deputy head of the Court of Protection department at Jackson Lees. She said: “Client outcomes and improving their experience is always at the top of our agenda, so setting up the Trust Corporation was a massive step for the business as a whole.
“It maintains continuity of service for clients as a result of more people being available to make decisions and sign documents without reliance on one individual which can cause delays should that individual be unavailable for short periods through holiday or sickness or indeed wish to retire.”
Joining Jane and Joanne on the board is Danielle Carter who is a Court of Protection Solicitor, and Wills, Trusts and Probate solicitors Heather Horsewood and Chris Stone. Other existing members are solicitors Esther Leach, Sally Johnson, Andrew Holroyd and Haley Farrell.
Esther Leach, managing director at the Jackson Lees Group, said: “We are really excited to have Danielle, Chris and Heather join the Jackson Lees Trust Corporation Board of Directors. As experts in their fields and with years of experience assisting clients, they each bring something incredibly valuable to their new roles. There has been an increased demand for the Court of Protection department’s services in recent years, so it’s essential that we are equipped with the appropriate resource to offer an efficient, robust service to our clients.”
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N Brown Group, the Manchester-based inclusive fashion and homeware digital retailer, has appointed Helen Low as the group’s new director of design.
Helen, who is currently head of design at Joules, will join on November 21. The appointment is in line with existing succession plans for the group’s current director of design, Neil Hendy, who confirmed to the business his decision to leave earlier this year.
Helen has more than 25 years’ experience within the fashion industry and has held senior design positions at Next, Marks and Spencer, and George at Asda. She is currently the head of design at Joules and before this spent three years as Debenhams design director.
Helen Low
Reporting into Sarah Welsh, CEO of retail, Helen will focus on continuing to build on the product handwriting evolution which has been delivered within the past two years under Neil’s leadership. A key focus for the group is to drive a more distinct customer proposition across N Brown’s strategic brands, Simply Be, JD Williams and Jacamo, by creating a clearly defined product handwriting.
Sarah Welsh said: “Helen will bring a huge amount of passion and expertise to N Brown. She has a wealth of design, innovation and strategy experience from across the fashion industry and will instantly become a valued member of our team. She joins us at a really exciting time for the business as we continue to elevate our fashion proposition through our differentiated brand portfolio to make our customers look and feel amazing.
“I would also like to thank Neil for his hard work and dedication over the last two years. He has been instrumental in evolving our in house product offer in a way that resonates with our customers.”
Helen Low said: “I am excited to be joining a business with such a distinct and inclusive portfolio of well-loved brands. As N Brown looks to increase its own-designed product, I am looking forward to working with the team to enhance its product offer, with a focus on our customers’ love for value and fit.”
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Two new team members have recently joined the growing medical negligence department at Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers, the Oldham-based law firm.
With years of experience working with personal injury clients, and a wealth of professional knowledge on these types of cases, solicitor Karen Kenyon has moved into the medical negligence department. Joedanna Neild also joins the team working alongside the solicitors as a paralegal.
From left: Karen Kenyon, Jacqueline White, Joedanna Neild
Joedanna has recently completed her degree at Manchester Metropolitan University and is looking forward to learning ‘on the job’ as she completes her solicitor’s qualifying exams. She said: “I am excited to have joined Pearson, I live locally and they have such a good reputation so I’m proud to be part of their team.”
Karen also brings with her experience and an empathy for her clients, she has previously worked in personal injury and family and is relishing the challenge of medical negligence work. She said: “I feel the experience gained in other areas of the law will serve me well in medical negligence and I’ll bring something new to the team. My personal injury and family backgrounds are great preparation for this new challenge and I am looking forward to working with clients not only locally, but interestingly from all over England.”
Pearson head of clinical negligence, Jacqueline White, said: “It’s lovely to have two such different members join the department. Joedanna is right at the very start of her legal career and Karen brings with her a wealth of experience, amazing client care and a fresh steer to the department.”
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North West law firm Woodcocks Haworth and Nuttall Solicitors (WHN) has invested in future industry talent with five of its trainees recently progressing through their chosen routes towards professional qualification.
Over the past four months trainees Megan Frost, Lucie Rushton, Kate Naylor, Michaela Miller and Elizabeth Groom, have started or advanced into their next stage of professional development, gaining valuable skills and experience through WHN’s training programme.
Megan, from Bacup, completed her Legal Practice Course (LPC) and qualified as a solicitor in June. She joined WHN in February 2022 working as a legal assistant and paralegal before beginning her training contract. With a degree in law and a postgraduate honours degree in law, business and management, Megan supports the residential conveyancing team based in WHN’s Haslingden office.
Previously a paralegal in the firm’s dispute resolution team, Lucie commenced her training contract with WHN in August. She is based in the firm’s Bury office and her training involves key client services including commercial disputes, employment law and long leasehold dispute resolution. Lucie is also currently completing her Legal Practice Course and Master of Law, studying part time at Leeds Beckett University.
From left: Kate Naylor, Lucie Rushton, Michaela Miller, Michael Shroot, Megan Frost, Elizabeth Groom
Joining WHN as a trainee in July, Kate immediately began her Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), a recently launched new route to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales, which she is studying at UCLan. Kate has a law degree from Northumbria University, graduating with first class honours, and has commenced her training at WHN in its family law team.
Trainee Michaela is currently undertaking a Level 4 CLC Course with Professional Vocational Training and is training to become a licensed conveyancer. She joined WHN’s Haslingden office on a permanent basis in March 2019, and provides an important role within WHN’s residential conveyancing team, dealing with property sales, purchases and transfers.
Elizabeth, WHN’s most recent trainee, started her training contract in October. She has a degree in law and Master’s in International Business, Finance and Corporate Law. Elizabeth’s training will be based in the firm’s Haslingden office, involving a variety of client services including residential conveyancing, wills and probate and Court of Protection work. In her second and final year of training, Elizabeth will focus predominantly on private client work.
Michael Shroot, CEO at WHN Solicitors, said: “Throughout our history, our success has been based on the recruitment and development of people who can provide outstanding advice to clients. The recent progress of Megan, Luce, Kate, Michaela, and Elizabeth, who have all been part of our trainee programme, proves the investment we make in professional development results in a team of talented and hugely professional people.”
WHN employs 110 staff across Lancashire and Greater Manchester and has offices in Accrington, Bacup, Bury, Blackburn, Clitheroe, Haslingden, Great Harwood and Rawtenstall.
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Homebuilder Anwyl Homes has appointed Helen Tollitt as customer services director.
Based at the company’s headquarters in Ewloe, Flintshire, while covering both Anwyl’s Cheshire and North Wales and Lancashire regions, Helen has been leading the department since joining the business in 2019. In her new role as director she will oversee one of the biggest regulatory changes the new homes industry has ever seen.
The New Homes Quality Code, a new industry code of practice, recently launched alongside the New Homes Ombudsman Service, with developers now required to register to give their customers reassurance that their home is protected by the code and access to the Ombudsman Service if required.
Helen Tollitt
Helen said: “The focus of the NHQB is ‘championing quality new homes and better consumer outcomes’ and very much aligns with our own values. Its introduction is a big change for some parts of the industry, but less so for others. At Anwyl Homes, we know we already build quality homes and take good care of our customers. However, the new regulations raise standards even further and is something we are proud to say we are complying with so soon after it has been introduced.”
Before joining the housebuilder Helen has worked in customer services for 15 years, managing call centres for big names like Marks and Spencer and Shop Direct. She managed Shop Direct’s onshore and offshore service centres in South Africa for three years before being promoted to head of operations for the in-house customer excellence team, which resolved all types of regulated financial services complaints.
She said: “I’ve always worked in customer services and love that no two days are ever the same. I thrive on managing a really strong team, working across the two Anwyl regions, I get to work with virtually everyone in the company.”
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Girls Out Loud, the not-for-profit organisation founded by Jane Kenyon in 2010, has announced expansion plans with the hire of three local women, Jodes Salt, Dawn Clarke and Rachel McDermott, to help take the social enterprises’s vital work to the next level into 2023 and beyond.
Girls Out Loud, which is passionate about inspiring and empowering teenage girls to find their voices, harness their self-belief and maximise their potential, works with schools across the North West, offering early intervention initiatives including the Big Sister mentoring programme which has helped thousands of girls since inception.
Jodes Salt, a qualified executive coach and specialist in leadership development will take on the role of Business Development Manager, where she will work alongside Jane Kenyon to drive corporate sponsorship from companies in the North West, support the work around the Shining Stars fundraising ball taking place in 2023 and partnering Jane to deliver training for Big Sister mentors.
New team members
Dawn Clarke, a qualified mediator, counsellor, mentor currently studying to achieve an NLP coaching qualification, will take on the role of Lead Big Sister. Following a chance encounter with Girls Out Loud while hosting one of the Big Sister graduation ceremonies at Salford College, Dawn joined the next Big Sister programme as a mentor and has now stepped up to manage her first Big Sister programme at Great Academy Ashton, where she’ll look after 20 Big Sisters as well as managing and leading the launch, workshops and graduation.
Rachel McDermott, with 12 years in advertising and a passion for helping young people get the best possible start in life, will take on the lead of part-time Marketing Manager, where she will develop and promote the use of a brand new, company first digital app offering support and motivation to teen girls, in addition to leading The Big Sister Club, a network for past and present Big Sister mentors, and work with Jane to support and engage her team of 18 ambassadors..
Since inception in 2010, founder, Jane, has worked tirelessly to raise more than £1m to run Girls Out Loud with little or no financial support from schools or the public sector. Girls Out Loud’s work has touched the lives of 20,000+ girls in 50+ diverse schools across the North West, and Jane has personally coached 100+ teen girls and 200+ female entrepreneurs over the past decade.
She said:“We’re thrilled to welcome these three inspiring women on to our team who are just as dedicated as we are to raising the aspirations of teenage girls in the UK. It’s time to take our work to the next level and we’re certain that Jodes, Dawn and Rachel can help us to do that going forward.”
