Partner Article

Gardner Leader in major recruitment drive

Gardner Leader, one of the largest law firms in Berkshire, has started the New Year with three new hires to join its residential property teams in Maidenhead and Newbury.

The new recruits include Emma Jones, Licensed Conveyancer, who will be based in Newbury together with Ben Baccas, paralegal. Wajid Ashraf, also a paralegal, will work from the Maidenhead office and will join Fiona Tighe, an associate solicitor who has been with the firm since 2006. Fiona has been part of Gardner Leader’s 16 strong residential property team in Newbury but will be moving over to head up the property team in Maidenhead as business continues to boom.

This major recruitment drive now takes the Gardner Leader residential property team to 28, with 16 based in the Newbury office in Market Place and four in Maidenhead on Queens Street. The Maidenhead office was originally Heath Buckeridge Solicitors until the practice was acquired by Gardner Leader last year.

Stuart Durrant, Partner and Head of the Conveyancing team at Gardner Leader said, “Land Registry figures last November showed UK property prices up by 0.6% which is 7% more compared to the year before. We’re certainly seeing this rise reflected in the local housing market by the number of people seeking our legal expertise and support and we’re expecting this upward trend to continue since the introduction of the Government’s recent stamp duty reforms and the Help to Buy scheme extended to 2020.

“Hiring Emma, Ben and Wajid and appointing Fiona to head up the team in Maidenhead was therefore essential to maintaining Gardner Leader’s business growth and customer service in line with rising demand. We’re delighted that three such talented professionals could join the firm and we look forward to a prosperous year ahead.”

Emma Jones, who lives in Newbury, has 12 years experience in residential property Conveyancing and previously worked for a large solicitors in Newbury. She is a member of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and joined Gardner Leader due to its well-known reputation for helping people locally and its highly-established property department.

Ben Baccas also joined Gardner Leader due to the firm’s positive status in the local community. As a local resident, he will be supporting the property team in Newbury as a paralegal as he works towards his goal to become a qualified solicitor.

Wajid Ashraf, also a paralegal, will be assisting the property team in the Maidenhead office, as he too works towards his aim to be a qualified solicitor. Wajid, who lives close to the office in Maidenhead, recently graduated from BPP Law School in London and was drawn to Gardner Leader because it is well respected in the legal profession.

Fiona Tighe, associate, qualified in 1983 and deals with a wide variety of property work from first time buyers to high value properties. She will be heading up the Maidenhead property team which will offer the same extensive property services as in Newbury which include buying and selling a home, buying to let, shared ownership and re-mortgaging.

Gardner Leader also has a commercial property team to support on all legal matters related to business premises.

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For media enquiries, please contact Verity Blake, HeadOn, 07920792 183 or verityblake@headonpr.co.uk

About Gardner Leader

@GardnerLeader

With offices in Newbury, Thatcham and Maidenhead, Gardner Leader is a leading law firm in the South East offering a wide range of legal services for businesses and individuals. In 2014 the firm was recommended by the respected legal directory, The Legal 500 UK, in eight areas of law, including corporate and commercial, commercial litigation, clinical negligence, contentious trusts and probate, family law, and personal tax, trusts and probate legal services. Chris Felton, partner in the dispute resolution team, was also described as ‘a match for any Magic Circle litigator.’

The firm was first founded in 1895. Its team of highly experienced and friendly solicitors are all specialist, specifically dedicated to their areas of expertise. Each team is driven by what matters to the client and committed to delivering results.

Gardner Leader services include:

Corporate and commercial (such as the formation or acquisition of a business, venture capital and private equity transactions, preparing shareholder agreements and commercial contracts) Commercial property Dispute Resolution Employment (for individuals and businesses) Family (such as family breakdowns and divorce and pre-nuptial agreements)) Residential conveyancing Inheritance protection Injury claims

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Verity Blake .