Hear from Brachers LLP, winners at the British Wills and Probate Awards 2020

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 Private Client Team of the Year Award winner, Brachers LLP

About the Private Client Team of the Year Award

This award recognises a private client team within a firm who work in collaboration to provide the best service to their clients, and who demonstrate how they work together to contribute to the overall firm’s success. The winner will be able to showcase a tea-based approach to practicing with a diverse mix of team members bringing a variety of skills and experience to the team to produce a winning combination.

The winner of this award must:

• Have a team ethos
• Exceptional client service with a demonstrably high level of skills and technical ability
• A flare for innovation and championing best practice
• Show initiative in challenging situations

Brachers LLP were shortlisted alongside:

• Bolt Burdon (Highly Commended)
• Glover Priest Solicitors

During the judging process, the judges decided that Brachers LLP were the worthy winners saying:

 “The submission demonstrated energy and ethos of the team at Brachers.”

How did you feel winning the Private Client Team of the Year award this year?

Christopher Eriksson-Lee, Partner and Head of the Private Client team said: “We are delighted to have won this prestigious award which reflects the hard work of the team over the last year. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, our team went above and beyond to support clients by increasing our service offering through initiatives such as out-of-hours video conferences to help clients through this difficult time. This recognition is all the more pleasing in our firm’s 125th anniversary year.”

Private Client Partner, Alexandra Gordon, said: “This is such a fantastic achievement and an absolute credit to the hard work of every single member in the team. In such a challenging year it’s been so incredible to see everyone pull together, especially over the last few months.”

So, who are Brachers? What do you do?

Brachers’ Private Client team includes a diverse mix of experts, balanced with several younger members. The team is highly qualified and ranked in leading legal directories Chambers High Net Worth Guide and Legal 500. Our expertise and experience mean that clients benefit from a first-class legal service.

In May 2020 Brachers celebrated seven promotions across the firm, with two in the Private Client team. Mary Rimmer was promoted to Partner, and Kim Harrington promoted to Senior Associate. Kim is one of our longest serving members of staff, having worked at the firm for 33 years. Private Client team member Deborah Sherry has also been promoted from Secretary to Paralegal in the last 12 months.

Several of the Private Client team are charity trustees, and the team as a whole dedicate much of their time outside of work to fundraising, pro bono work and charity awareness initiatives. Partner Mary Rimmer is involved in the Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘Dementia Friends’ campaign and by January this year had personally created over one thousand Dementia Friends through delivering training to Brachers staff, local businesses, and schools. Mary has been instrumental in helping Brachers work towards becoming a 100% dementia friendly business.

“I think our team is very philanthropic, many of us are or have been charity trustees, and we try and support local charities with our fundraising and time. We also have good longevity in the team showing commitment and loyalty, but more recently we have balanced this with securing younger team members, which makes us a relatively young private client team.”

– Kim Harrington, Senior Associate – Private Client team

How has your firm developed in the last 12 months and navigated the added complexity of the coronavirus pandemic?

We are an innovative firm and use technology to our advantage, which has been essential to support our private clients throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The Government’s announcement to work from home was given with limited warning. However, we reacted quickly and used this period as an opportunity to innovate; launching our extended hours scheme to give flexibility to key workers and those home-schooling children. We supported clients through effective use of technology such as conducting meetings via video calls, and responded to clients unable to travel by visiting their homes at times convenient to them – including bank holidays, evenings and weekends.
To show our appreciation of NHS and key workers on the front line, we are currently offering them a discount on our core private client services. As a result, we have seen a surge in will instructions from NHS staff and have worked to help them to feel as prepared and reassured as possible, should the worst occur.

We are also providing ongoing free legal guidance and advice for clients and the wider public via our website and social channels, including a weekly ‘Fact Friday’ video series, articles, and information videos.

This year has been a huge challenge for everybody, but it has really brought us together as a team.

What’s next on the cards for you?

It is an exciting time for the firm as we have recently opened a new office in Canterbury, which we hope will help us to support our clients and expand our reach in the East Kent region.

We are continually making improvements to our systems and processes to help support clients and improve the client journey. This includes the recent implementation of an online booking system for clients to arrange free initial consultations with our team and digital forms to allow them to start the process of creating a will at their convenience. We are also currently building a new internal onboarding team to support clients throughout their dealings with us.

We’re extremely proud of Private Client team Partner Alexandra Gordon who has recently become one of the youngest ever presidents of Kent Law Society, and has a busy year ahead of her. One of her goals as president is to promote mental health within the legal profession.

What advice would you give someone thinking of joining the Wills and Probate sector?

	Christopher Eriksson-Lee, Partner and Head of the Private Client team said: “It is important that you are passionate about the work and can have empathy with clients. Also, as well as being able to exhibit the softer skills you will benefit from being commercially aware.”
	Private Client Partner, Alexandra Gordon, said: “I would say that it is a really wide practice area with no two clients being the same, which makes the work interesting and varied – and you can never know it all. There’s a great deal of client contact and I find that you get such personal job satisfaction knowing that you are helping people, often at very difficult times of their lives.”

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?

Given the challenges we have experienced this year we feel it is more important than ever to recognise the hard work and success within our sector. The British Wills and Probate Awards are instrumental in celebrating excellence and provide a benchmark for recognition.

We would like to thank the Today’s Wills and Probate team for delivering such a great event given the difficult circumstances. It was a real pleasure to be able to celebrate with everyone.

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.