On Thursday 22 October 2020, professionals from across the wills and probate sector came together to celebrate the successes and achievements of the industry is what has been a challenging year, at the British Wills and Probate Awards 2020.
The awards, which was back for it’s third year, took to the virtual stage and was hosted by ex-Royal correspondent, Jennie Bond, alongside headline sponsor Arken.legal (UK), and champagne sponsor Executor Solutions.
500 people watched the winning organisations take the crown this year. The full list of winners is available here. The online event is available to watch here.
Let’s hear from Solicitor Firm of the Year (North) Award winner, Taylor&Emmet
About the Solicitor Firm of the Year (North) Award
This award represents the regional Solicitor firm who has best proven all round excellence within the practice area of Wills, Probate and Estate Management. They effectively engage with their clients through various channels be it directly, online or through panels.
The winner of this award must:
- Be able to demonstrate extensive development and progress as a business within the last year, including but not limited to; strategy, growth, financial performance, employee development, diversity and training
- Have evidence of active engagement and community and or corporate initiatives
- Be able to demonstrate that they are operating in the best interests of the client and the profession
- Be able to demonstrate they excel at dealing with service issues or complaints which may arise
- Be able to demonstrate a clear approach it IT security and cyber crime prevention
Taylor&Emmet were shortlisted alongside:
- Hugh Jones Solicitors (Highly Commended)
- Oliver & Co Solicitors
During the judging process, the judges decided that Taylor&Emmet were the worthy winners saying:
“The firm exhibited evidence of commercial and professional development for their employees as well as diversification into new and niche areas of law.”
How did you feel winning the Solicitor Firm of the Year (North) Award this year?
This is a fantastic achievement for us. It was an honour to represent Yorkshire on a national stage and to win against some serious competition from elsewhere in the north. We have worked hard to retain our usual levels of service, despite the challenging circumstances we have faced this year, and this award is testament to the dedication my team has demonstrated to clients.
So, who are Taylor& Emmet? What do you do?
Our private client team is one of the largest of its type in Yorkshire and the Humber and has 29 permanent staff, including six partners, based at four of Taylor&Emmet’s five offices across South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. The Legal 500 2021 noted our full-service offering to clients, courtesy of close connections with our contentious probate and real estate colleagues, along with our specialist intestacy tracing and empty homes department.
How has your firm developed in the last 12 months and navigated the added complexity of the coronavirus pandemic?
The closure of our offices at the beginning of lockdown required us to find new and innovative ways to communicate with clients and ensure families were able to put their affairs in order in accordance with the law and social distancing rules.
Changes implemented quickly by our IT department accelerated the opportunities for flexible working and have enabled us to retain confidentiality and client relationships when dealing with sensitive issues, such as capacity and undue influence. From kitchen tables across the county, our fee earners assisted new and existing clients, visiting driveways and back gardens to witness wills being signed and coordinating the delivery of probate papers to our various offices. Although we have now reopened, we are still working from home some of the time, taking precautions when meeting clients and offering video conferences if required.
Throughout the year, we have continued to recruit new members to the probate and inheritance tracing teams to deal with increased caseloads. This stood us in good stead during the pandemic, ensuring clients could always speak to someone and we were still able to service urgent instructions.
What’s next on the cards for you?
Our principal aim is further expansion of the probate team, whilst retaining our focus on building long lasting, inter-generational client relationships and retaining the excellent service levels for which we are renowned.
We are seeing a significant increase in new instructions from high net worth clients in London and further afield, who recognise we offer the same (if not better) service at a comparatively reduced cost when compared to firms in the capital. This area of work is expanding thanks to the personal recommendations we receive and our fee earners’ willingness to travel to clients’ homes across the country.
Our intestacy tracing and empty homes team, led by associate, Ben Brown, is also seen as an area of future growth. It has expanded rapidly since its formation in 2018 and receives regular instructions from leading genealogists. After identifying an issue with the number of homes laying empty in the UK, Ben established a specialist team with contentious probate and conveyancing colleagues to deal with empty property that has already advised numerous councils across the UK and provided staff training.
What advice would you give someone thinking of joining the Wills and Probate sector?
This is an exciting and challenging time to join the probate sector, so I’d say go for it! No two days are ever the same and it’s an ideal career for anyone who enjoys developing lasting and rewarding client and family relationships.
New legislation is most definitely on the horizon, for both the execution of wills and taxation of estates, so you need to keep your knowledge up to date and embrace change. Long gone are the days when probate solicitors simply prepared wills and distributed estates. There is a much greater tax planning role to play now and most people require bespoke wills drafting, rather than us being able to rely on a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
As a former Taylor&Emmet trainee myself, I am a great believer in supporting young talent and I am rarely without a fledgling solicitor to mentor. Many past trainees have been retained by our department and we continue to nurture and encourage their professional development.
Why is the British Wills and Probate Awards event, which recognises excellence and highlights achievements in the industry, so important to the industry, especially this year?
This has been a difficult year for the industry and we need events, such as the British Wills and Probate Awards, to bring practitioners together to celebrate our successes. We must sing the praises of the hard working and dedicated individuals who are making a real difference to families across the UK and celebrate the positives we can take from this challenging time – the acceleration of flexible working, innovative new ways to communicate with clients and a vast reduction in paper consumption.
By bringing the industry together – even in a remote way – we can remind ourselves that we are not alone and that the struggles we are overcoming as a firm are being felt right across the profession.
The answers were provided by Richard King, head of wills and probate at Sheffield’s Taylor&Emmet LLP.
Everyone at Today’s Wills and Probate congratulates all those who were shortlisted in this year’s awards.
More information about the British Wills and Probate Awards can be found here.
