We are seeking a Child Law Specialist solicitor NQ+ or very experienced or both to join our child law team.
The successful candidate will either a be a member of the Law Society children panel or they will have ambitions to join. (and we will support them to do this)
We already have one of the strongest child law teams in the south-west. This includes three current members of the Law Society child law panel and two former members. We regularly represent parents, children, grandparents and undertake local authority agency work.
Our progressive niche practice is owned and run by Ian Walker who is one of our children panel members – so you won’t have to worry about our commitment to children law! (In the last 10 years quite a number of firms – some of whom have had large and reputable child law teams – have surrendered their legal aid contracts).(We are also a real living wage employer).
We are a dynamic and growing practice. Ian is the Chair of the Devon Region of Resolution and has been Highly Commended in the practice manager of the year category in the 2019 Law Society Excellence Awards.
There is an opportunity to work with and learn from our existing team. This includes Kim Stradling who is one of the leading child law solicitors in the south-west.
Our IT structure is cloud-based and easily supports flexible working and homeworking and paperless working. Flexible/smart working is positively encouraged.
We hold Lexcel accreditation. We have the practice support you would expect including LEXIS PSL and software to create our own electronic bundles.
We are also happy to consider both fee share consultancy.
As the legal market develops it is becoming increasingly obvious that niche practice’s such as ourselves enjoy a competitive advantage over traditional high Street practices.
We attract quality work from across our office network which is in Exeter, Taunton, Torquay, Honiton, Yeovil and Weston-super-Mare. This is a fantastic opportunity with long-term prospects.
If you don’t already work in Devon and Somerset, you are really missing out, and this is a fantastic opportunity to improve your quality of life.
The successful candidate:
You will be based on the East Devon side of Exeter.
Although we have multiple locations to see clients, we are all based at the same office – which is the central location in our office network.
This means they need to come into the office at least once a week so that they are fully part of the team (no competing and divisive branch cultures for us). However, there is very ample scope for flexible/smart working.
You will probably be primarily responsible for our Somerset care work.
Our practice is very much built around its team.
To find out more about our practice visit our website at http://ian-walker-family-law.local/ Please send your CV and covering letter in confidence to Ian Walker at [email protected]
I am a Solicitor who has specialised in Child Law since qualification in 1992. I was admitted to the Law Society Children Panel in 1996. My practice has one of the most experienced teams of child law specialist solicitors in the South West.
Over the years I have represented many parents and grandparents in Court Proceedings brought by Social Services. The Court now expects most cases to be finished in 26 weeks or less. This means that the window of time for parents and grandparents to make the right choices so that they will succeed is very small. Good decisions need to be made at the very start of a case.
No Solicitor who represents parents and grandparents in Social Services cases can claim that they have succeeded in keeping children with their parents/grandparents in every case. Sometimes the problems are simply too great to overcome in the timescale of the court process. Sometimes clients are unable to follow our advice or panic and switch off.
We always try hard to make sure that our clients give themselves the best chance of achieving the best realistic outcome and that their case is clearly heard by the Court. Over the years we have helped clients to achieve some excellent outcomes.
Being taken to Court always involves the risk of a bad outcome. This is because decisions are made by someone else. The best way to succeed is always to avoid ending up in Court in the first place.
There is no substitute to seeking specific advice from an experienced Solicitor. The following is a good place to start:
Be Honest. This might sometimes seem like a bad idea. Surely it’s better to pretend things were not as bad as they were? No. If you are open; show you understand where things have gone wrong, you are well on the way to putting things right. If you lie, chances are you will be found out. You will then be someone who cannot be trusted, and potentially in serious trouble. Often the lie is worse than what is being lied about.
Don’t be horrible or rude to Social Services. They are doing their job. They are people too. They are motivated to protect children. All you are doing is making things harder for yourself.
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