Welcome to Hannah Elliot: Paralegal and prospective Trainee Solicitor

We are very pleased to welcome Hannah Elliott to our team.

Hannah started with us on 31 July 2017. She will be supporting our team with case management.

Hannah graduated from Exeter University this year with a good 2:1 Law Degree. She had a particular aptitude for Family Law and one of her tutors was David Tyzack QC, who was for many years the senior family Judge in Exeter. We know that Exeter University has a strong reputation for family law and members of the academic team are also members of Devon Resolution.

To qualify as a solicitor Hannah needs to next pass the Legal Practice Course (LPC) which she will be studying part time from September at the University of Law in Bristol. She will then have 2 years on the job training: (a training contract), although we would hope to have this time reduced for the knowledge she gains in the next 2 years.

Educated in East Devon

Hannah was educated in East Devon and attended Axe Valley Community College.

Hannah has good principles

We have been impressed that Hannah is a compassionate person who likes helping others. Hannah’s volunteering has included helping with a soup preparing and serving food to the homeless people in Exeter  and which has also included volunteering with the Human Rights Brigade in Panama in June 2015. Hannah says: 

I volunteered for a week in an underdeveloped rural community in eastern Panama. Working alongside the Panamanian lawyers, I provided legal advice to families and set up legal drop in clinics for the local people. As a team we also educated the local people on their human rights, such as by providing advice to domestic violence victims and by performing plays in front of the local school children to teach them about gender equality. Although I was only there for a short time it really brought home to me how the application law can make a very real difference to peoples lives. 

Hannah has made a good start and has spent a good deal of time helping our Child Law expert Solicitor Kim Stradling with a particularly complex child law case including assisting the QC (very senior barrister) we have instructed at Court.

Welcome to our team

Ian Walker says:

We are very pleased to welcome Hannah into our team.

In the short term Hannah will provide some extra casework support, but she is hopefully a recruit for the long term. If all goes to plan she will qualify as a solicitor, become an outstanding family law specialist solicitor and have a long career with us. There is  a  bit of a culture of law graduates spending a few years working as a paralegal here and there in a sometimes vain hope of securing a training contract. I don’t like that. We recruit for the long term.

We have recruited Hannah because she has the capability of becoming an outstanding solicitor. We are a growing specialist family law practice and we hope that Hannah’s career will grow and flourish with us.