Richard is a director & head of trust and taxation (solicitor) at Talbots Law. He is based at their Stourbridge office and practices in all aspects of private client work including: creation of wills; the preparation of lasting powers of attorney; and administration of estates and post death matters. He also specialises in tax and wealth planning and the creation and administration of trusts including overseeing management of the Talbots’ Trusts. He often acts as advocate or attorney for clients.
Born and raised in Kingswinford, Richard went to Sheffield University to study Mathematics. After spending a decade working in the music industry as a sound and light technician up north, Richard decided to get a proper job and retrained in law, moving back to the Midlands in 2006 and qualifying as a solicitor in April 2010. Richard is a member of the Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners (STEP) and the Association of Lifetime Lawyers (formerly Solicitors For the Elderly).
What was your career path to your current role?
Following the end of millennium events, I decided I should really get a “proper job” and so I returned to study at Manchester Metropolitan University, first doing a Postgraduate Diploma in Law and then my LPC. The first part of which I completed whilst working full time as a legal assistant in a Housing Trust and then a firm in Manchester.
Having successfully completed my “retraining”, in 2006 I returned to my roots in the West Midlands, managing to secure a job as a Paralegal in the Property dept of George Green LLP – my parents’ solicitors.
Despite the 2008 Recession, I was fortunate enough to secure a training contract and, in April 2010 and at the age of 37, I finally qualified as a solicitor.
It was at this point that I got my first exposure to trust and estate work. Whilst a fee earner role was not initially available, I assisted the T&E department with a review of their Will Bank. This lead to working alongside the T&E team and, once they realised I was accomplished with numbers, I helped with estate administration and particularly in helping colleagues with their estate accounts! Bit by bit and also under the tutelage of my mentor Adrian Church, I starting to pick up the knowledge and skills to deal with all aspects of Trust and Estate Work.
I then moved firms and worked for a firm called Lanyon Bowdler where I headed up a small team at the Telford office. I was fortunate enough to be able to study and complete my STEP diploma whilst working there.
After a brief stop-off at Higgs LLP, I then secured a role of associate at Talbots law in 2017 and haven’t looked back. Promotion to Director and then to heading up our Trust and Taxation team, my next anniversary will be a decade – with the added bonus that I am able to walk to work (when it’s not raining!)
Did you have any other career ambitions?
Whilst studying Pure Mathematics and Statistics at Sheffield University between 1991 and 1994, I got involved with the Technical Services Committee – effectively acting as local crew for events and gigs at the University.
Getting schooled in many areas such as Sound / Lights / Stage Management, when I finished University I first took a job at the Leadmill nightclub in Sheffield (which at that time also had bands playing), the local crew based in Sheffield and effectively became a “roadie”. This involved working with many bands through the 90s which the best known ones being Fun Loving Criminals, Blur and the Spice Girls. I also worked for conference centres doing corporate events where I would help set up Lights and Sound and A/V systems.
What keeps you motivated in your work?
Motivation is simple – I get to help people. I have often said that T&E is more social work than law. From helping people plan for the future (sometimes when death might be imminent) to try and alleviate their worries, acting as their attorney when they have no-one else to help, and assisting grieving families when they can be a bit lost.
The Trust and Taxation side of things can present quite complex problems and solutions and so keeps me mentally stimulated – even if at times the Relevant Property Regime can make your head hurt!
What has been the best development in wills and probate in the last 20 years?
I think the best development in the last 20 years has been the Tell Us Once Service. It would be great if someone could do that for all the banks!
And the worst?
I think joint worst is a fight between the Trust Registration Service and the process at the Probate Registry where an application needs to be “referred”!
If you could bring in one new piece of legislation for the sector, what would it be and why?
I would like the Assisted Dying Bill to be made law. I think it is a cruelty to insist that terminally ill people must live in pain without having a choice
What piece of legislation would you take off the statute books and why?
The provisions which created the unnecessarily complex rules to qualify for the Residence Nil Rate Band is ludicrous. Surely a simple increase to the Standard Nil Rate Band would be better.
What’s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you regarding your career?
The best bit of advice I was given was by someone who worked in Criminal Law and told me the hard truth of working in that area. The most interested area of law to study… but a very difficult area to work in with legal aid having been diminished so much.
What advice would you like to give to someone just starting out?
Advice starting out now – that’s really tricky. I think practitioners are going to have to be very flexible as it rather seems that the industry is going to undergo a practical transformation once AI learns enough to do our job. Have a plan B!!!
Tell us something people may be surprised to know about you…
I used to play American Football (as a running back) for the Sheffield Hallam University team – until I broke my leg during a match in Newcastle!
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