People: Harrowells; Lawrence Hannah; Andrew Jackson Solicitors; and more

Property lawyer, Olivia Buck, who has specialist expertise in listed buildings and other properties of unusual historic or architectural, interest has joined North and East Yorkshire law firm – Harrowells.

Buck, previously a senior solicitor at City of London firm, Macfarlanes LLP, will be based at Harrowells’ York city centre office at St Saviourgate as a partner in the Residential Conveyancing Department.

After gaining a BA in history at Oxford and an MA in architectural history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Olivia Buck trained at Macfarlanes LLP, and qualified in 2012.

She has more than ten years’ experience in advising individuals, charities, property companies and funds which are purchasing, or selling, residential properties where the high value, historic or unusual nature of the building often requires specific technical expertise.

She also acts for landlords of historic residential blocks and people wanting to extend their flat leases or enfranchise leasehold houses.

Buck said: “My interest in architecture means I am always keen to understand people’s vision for their special property and help them achieve that goal.

“I am excited to join such a highly-regarded and well-established firm and looking forward to being a partner in a region with such a wide range of historic and unusual properties, from industrial conversions to town and country houses and rural estates.”

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Property consultancy, Lawrence Hannah, has strengthened its talented property team with the appointment of Andy Rogers as director.

He joins the York-based consultancy to lead its building consultancy team, replacing Michael Holford, who is still retained by the practice as a consultant.

Rogers arrives from Avison Young (formerly GVA) in Leeds, where he was a director and head of its building consultancy team. He previously worked for GVA in the Midlands.

He is an experienced project manager, fulfilling the role of lead consultant, project manager and employer’s agent on new-build and refurbishment schemes up to £20m in value.

He has extensive development support experience, having provided bank and independent investor appraisals and monitoring for schemes as diverse as industrial, retail, health centres, leisure and alternative energy developments.

Rogers also provides core due diligence for buildings for acquisition and occupational purposes, generally in a lead role, throughout the UK, together with core building surveying and professional services such as dilapidations claims and neighbourly matters.

He said: “It is an extremely exciting time to be joining Lawrence Hannah, with a number of high-profile and exciting projects both on-going and in the pipeline in North Yorkshire and beyond.

“It’s also a great challenge and opportunity for myself personally, working with an established and highly respected and experienced Yorkshire property team.”

Miles Lawrence, managing director, said: “Andy has built a strong reputation within the Yorkshire property market as a first-class surveyor and project manager and I am confident the combination of his expertise and his commitment will prove invaluable to us.”

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Regional law firm Andrew Jackson Solicitors has appointed two solicitors within its private client team.

With several years’ experience working in the family sector, Lucy Walther will assist across a wealth of family matters, particularly on cases concerning divorce, children and family finances.

Charlene Merry – who also brings many years’ private client experience to her new role – will assist the firm’s clients across a wealth of personal legal matters including the preparation of wills, care fee planning, inheritance tax, and the preparation and registration of Lasting Powers of Attorney.

She will also assist with probate and estate administration.

Richard Hoare, partner and head of private client services, said: “Demand for our private client services remains exceptionally high and I know both Lucy and Charlene share the firm’s commitment to providing clients with high quality legal advice – something which is consistently recognised in our client feedback.

“I warmly welcome Lucy and Charlene to the team, and I am confident they will each make a significant and valued contribution as we continue to provide our clients with a tailored, personal service with trusted expertise.”

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LCF Law has appointed James Hood as head of IT, following significant investment in digital technology at the business.

In 2020 LCF Law unveiled a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure across its four offices in Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Ilkley allowing staff easy, secure and remote access to the firms IT resources and tools, whilst also providing the highest level of security against cyber threat and data protection for both clients and staff.

Hood, who has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, has headed the IT functions at well-known legal and accountancy firms in Yorkshire, as well as spending most of his early career in a managed services environment, which has helped him to drive a customer-centric focus to the services he delivers.

He said: “Having worked in the managed IT services sector for many years, predominantly with professional services firms as my bread-and-butter client base, I found that I really enjoyed working in the legal sector.

“When the role at LCF Law came up, it felt like a great fit for me. The team are a really friendly group of people, and I was keen to join a firm that is forward thinking and open to new ideas.”

Just over a year ago LCF Law made a significant investment in moving to cloud technology.

Hood will lead a team of four which is currently working on a significant pipeline of projects that covers everything from business improvement to managed print and electronic document workflow systems, management information reporting, Microsoft Teams telephony and collaboration, digital client onboarding and more.

Simon Stell, managing partner, said: “James will help to maximise our return on our recent IT investment, and will maintain our position at the forefront of our industry by spearheading a number of exciting business improvement projects.

“Our IT team is a major asset that can help us realise our strategic growth plans and James will be instrumental in this.”