HAPPENINGS IN HAMPSHIRE
Leading Hampshire law Phillips firm wins top award P
hillips Solicitors are thrilled to have been named Medium Law Firm of the Year in the 2021 Law Society Excellence Awards, the most prestigious awards ceremony for solicitors in England and Wales. The Law Society is the professional body for solicitors which drives excellence in the profession and safeguards the rule of law. Phillips Director Max Hope, based at the firm’s Town Gate offices, in London Street, Basingstoke, said that it is a great honour for the firm to be recognised by The Law Society, for providing outstanding legal services. He said: “We’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all our clients and referrers for placing their trust in us to deliver the level of service they have rightly come to expect.”
“This award would not have been possible without that trust and the very positive feedback that our clients kindly passed on to The Law Society in support of our nomination.” Phillips Director Jack Gardener said: “The award is a huge achievement for our firm which shows that we are doing the right things and going in the right direction with our ambitious growth plans, and the unrivalled way we invest in our community. Most importantly, this is an award that recognises the hard work and dedication of every member of our team.” This year the awards ceremony took place virtually and was hosted by comedian Jo Caulfield, who highlighted a number of the initiatives Phillips have implemented for the wellbeing of their staff, including its pioneering policy of offering funding and support for IVF treatment. Phillips were also praised for their financial stability whilst navigating the challenges of the pandemic. ■
Dutton Gregory Book P
artner and Family Law Specialist of Dutton Gregory Solicitors in Winchester and Southampton, Jonathan Whettingsteel, is delighted to announce the completion and publishing of his first legal handbook Entitled ‘A Practical Guide to Internal and External Child Relocation’ Jonathan says its purpose is to be the (hopefully) ‘go to guide’ on child relocation. It’s taken around 6 months to put together this book, which draws together statute, case law and procedural guidance to provide an easily navigable guide on the law around relocation. I wanted to write about this area as it is something I have seen becoming more and more common in practice, and believe as the world begins to open up again is going to
continue to be a more disputed topic. It was a lot tougher than I expected, and there were a lot of weekends and evenings spent wading through Judgements, but I’m very proud of completing something that I hope will provide a useful guide to practitioners to refer to. The book will be released later this month and is available to pre-order from Law Brief Publishing at: www.lawbriefpublishing.com/product/ internatandexternalchildrelocation/. ■
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