A Tough But Fulfilling Journey

Fully qualified Financial Adviser talks of ‘tough but fulfilling’ journey

The dictionary states the word

‘earn’ means to “gain deservedly in return for one's behaviour or achievements”.

The definition could have been written about Pippa Judson who has shown everyone at Chasebridge Wealth Management how committed she is to her career.

As of November 2020, the former senior adviser assistant achieved her level 4 diploma, officially making her a Financial Adviser.

“It’s been a tough and challenging journey but is also hugely fulfilling,” she says. “Anyone that has gone through the St. James's Place (SJP) Academy knows it’s a 12-month commitment. The training and learning is intense and there are six exams to get through.”

Although with three children at home, she says signing up to the course was a “family decision”, because her training would impact everyone at home.

“My kids all still need me, and for 10 months I was having to travel to Bristol for one week out of every four, so I had to weigh up whether that was even feasible. In addition, for the other three weeks, I was still doing my day job and studying so it was a huge personal commitment on my part and one that, although tough at the time, is not something I will ever regret doing.”

When Pippa joined Chasebridge Wealth Management three years ago she had no idea which direction her career path was set to take her.

“When I first joined I had just had four years off to be at home with the children. I was after a part-time local job that I could fit in around the school hours and had no particular long-term plan. I definitely had no idea that I would eventually become a financial adviser,” Pippa explains. Gordon Craft, Director of Chasebridge Wealth Management, says he “immediately saw potential” in Pippa from the start.

“I realised very early on that Pippa was capable of achieving more, so I encouraged her to take on some technical challenges and we decided to help her qualify and sponsor the process,” Gordon says.

Pippa signed up to the St. James's Place (SJP) Academy and has not looked back since. Her day now revolves around working with clients, drafting documents with recommendations and keeping one eye on the markets.

“Without doubt, one of the best parts of my job is helping someone who hasn’t got a clear idea of what they’re doing with their finances. Providing them with clarity and being able to hold their hand through the process is hugely rewarding and it’s helping them work towards financial freedom for the future."

you. He is always there to support you and help you progress. Having that support is amazing.”

For more information about Chasebridge Wealth Management, visit chasebridgewm. co.uk or contact Pippa on 01707 643555.

Chasebridge Wealth Management Ltd is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St. James's Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the group's wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the group's website www.sjp.co.uk/products.

“For anyone who might be considering a career as a Financial Adviser I would say 100 per cent go for it. It’s not easy as it requires a lot of personal and professional commitment, but I would say it’s worth it.

“I feel that I’ve been very lucky working for someone like Gordon who has created a company that values and supports

Pippa Judson

Students Helping Family Court Users

The Law School at the University of Hertfordshire has managed to overcome the Covid-19 restrictions to enable one of their pioneering pro bono projects to be relaunched online.

Support at Court was originally launched in March 2020 and was designed to provide Litigants in Person (“LiPs”) attending their first hearing in a private children dispute some practical and moral support. Statistics show that there is an increasing number of parties representing themselves in children cases, and this ultimately means them attending court on their own, or with a friend/family member. They are often emotional, have no idea what to expect, and have not prepared for the hearing in any way.

Between June and September 2019, the court reported 14,659 new FHDRA (First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment) hearings, involving 21,736 children - a 5% increase on the same quarter in 2018. In around 40% of these first hearings, neither side had legal representation - a figure which has been steadily increasing since 2013 when legal aid cuts came into effect. enough to interact fully with the court process and everyone dealing with it.

Students received special training to prepare them for the project – including a session by HHJ Middleton-Roy. They then started to attend the local family courts at Watford and Hertford (with a lecturer supervising them) to offer a free drop in service. They spent their day at court supporting a number of LiPs – from helping to put their papers in order; explaining how to address the Magistrates; to making notes during the hearing itself. This was of course a great experience for the students - to learn practical skills including dealing with real clients, particularly in a stressful situation. It was also really “eye-opening” for the students to see how the court system works in practice on a busy day and all the different court staff you interact with – from the security guard and usher, to the CAFCASS officer and mediator, and finally the magistrates and clerk in the court room itself.

We unfortunately only managed to attend court on two occasions before the first national lockdown took place. The FHDRAs were moved over to telephone hearings, and we could not initially see a way for a student to be involved in a helpful way for the LiPs.

After further consideration and helpful discussions with the judiciary we have now been able to launch our online Support at Court Service. A new university webpage has been set up, with a helpful introduction from HHJ David Vavrecka, the designated Family Judge for Hertfordshire. It explains how the service works and the level of support the students can give. There is also a useful video on how to prepare for a FHDRA, created by a group of students, and signposting to other organisations who support LiPs.

We had our first virtual Support at Court session in January and we hope to book in more over the coming weeks and months. Although, we would still ideally like to get the students back at court one day in the future – the “hands on” experiences there were second to none.

The Hertfordshire Law Clinic remains open online too. Further details are available on the university website and if any of you are interested in getting involved in helping to supervise the students, please get in touch with me.

Amanda Thurston

Director of Law Clinic a.thurston@herts.ac.uk

We met with the judiciary from the Hertfordshire Courts back in 2019 and it was heartening to see them overwhelming support our project. They recognized it would directly assist the unrepresented party, and also indirectly ensure the hearing runs more smoothly – as the unrepresented party would hopefully become informed

An X-Press service for solicitors and conveyancing professionals

X-Press Legal Services was established

over 20 years ago, with the aim of streamlining the property- buying process by providing specialist searches and reports combined with a personal service. The company has been so successful that it now provides over 400,000 conveyancing searches and reports to some 500 legal practices every year across England and Wales.

Whether you are dealing with a commercial or residential property being built, bought, sold, repossessed, re-mortgaged or redeveloped, X-Press Legal has the knowledge and experience to provide only the best data and reports.

A key reason for the company’s success is that its offices are owned by local experts, who are supported by a dedicated national office. Jo French owns X-Press Legal Services covering Essex, Herts and Cambridgeshire and has been in business for over 7 years. She has built a strong network and works closely with local councils and other organisations providing searches and reports for her clients.

Jo explains: “I am proud to live and work locally and therefore I know the area well, I have many loyal clients and I totally understand their needs.

“At X-Press Legal Services, we make it our business to provide our clients with a highly professional, fast and friendly service that’s tailored to their needs, nothing is too much trouble. As you would expect we use the latest technology to deliver our high-quality, datarich reports which comply with all the industry regulations.”

To ensure that they can always provide a reliable and accurate service, the people at X-Press Legal have forged working relationships with industry specialists such as Ordnance Survey, Groundsure, Landmark and the Coal Authority. The company is also an Executive Member of the Council of Property Search Organisations (COPSO).

For more information about XPLS services in Essex, Herts and Cambridgeshire please call Jo French on 0330 159 5356 xpresslegal.co.uk

L

If you ask a typical teenager

what they think

Fit, Feasible and Fair?

Acompany

voluntary arrangement (“CVA”) is a rescue process which is used when a viable business is in need of a restructure but is unable to afford the associated costs and/or it is experiencing cashflow problems or creditor pressure and is in need of some

breathing space. In order for creditors to consider a CVA proposal, they would be provided with an estimated comparison statement which compares the dividend outcome in a CVA to an alternative insolvency process i.e. a liquidation or administration. It is key to ensure that, when proposing a CVA, all creditors in a particular category e.g. unsecured, are treated fairly.

However, post Covid-19, it would appear that CVAs are evolving.

A CVA is typically based on affordable monthly contributions from profits over a period usually between 3 and 5 years. The monthly contributions are paid to the Supervisor of the CVA, a licensed insolvency practitioner (“IP”), which is held on trust for the benefit of creditors. The trust funds are distributed to creditors during or at the end of the CVA.

Compared to other insolvency processes, there is very little legislation for CVAs. The proposed terms of a CVA are set out in a bespoke proposal and if approved by the required requisite of creditors, the terms are legally binding on all creditors. Recently, we have seen a number of CVA proposals where creditors within the same category have been split in order to receive different dividends. For example, a CVA we advised on recently had proposed to split out landlords from trade creditors and then trade creditors were split into essential and nonessential categories. The timing and amount of the dividend for each category was different even though they are all unsecured creditors.

In addition, some CVAs we have advised on do not have an end date, the duration of the CVA is unknown. Due to not being able to produce business forecasts as a result of lockdown, the proposal simply states that the CVA will be fully implemented when the proposed dividend has been paid. In an extreme situation, that could be ten years or more.

Since the start of the pandemic, the insolvency profession has very much been focusing on rescue and this is clearly evident when reading current CVA proposals. However, when advising on a CVA, the IP needs to be satisfied that what is being proposed is fit, feasible and fair to all creditors. In some of the cases we have seen, we are not sure that the terms are fair to all creditors but what is being proposed is necessary to ensure survival of the business in very difficult circumstances.

It may be only a matter of time before we see new case law being introduced as a result of the current CVAs being proposed.

Suki Bains

If you would like further information on CVAs or you have any general insolvency queries, please do not hesitate to contact any of the BRI management team on 01462 429718

The responsibility of experts in relation to their written evidence

Arecent judgment from the

Honourable Mr Justice Marcus Smith provides a cautionary tale for experts.

The judgment contains the following in section 13:

(h) The last point that I make in relation to Professor Morgan’s evidence concerns less his oral evidence and more the written reports he submitted before the hearing and which he affirmed represented his expert opinion when he gave his evidence in-chief. I am afraid that Morgan 1 and Morgan 2 (Morgan 3 is a short and not particularly material report) were, in critical respects, disingenuous documents, written in a manner that seemed to me calculated, not to assist, but to mislead, the court. I am very conscious that this is the most serious criticism that one can make of an expert, and I do not make it lightly. The main points that have compelled me to this conclusion are dealt with fully in paragraphs 62 and 67 of this judgment, and I have sought to be clear throughout this judgment why I am not accepting evidence on certain points. Because the points go very much to the substance of the issue that I must determine, it is not possible to anticipate them here, save in the most general of terms. Suffice it to say, for the reasons given in these paragraphs, I am not confident that I can rely on Professor Morgan’s reports, save with a degree of caution and reserve that a judge would not normally attach to the report of an expert.

(i) As is normal practice, a draft of this judgment was circulated, on terms of strict confidentiality, to the parties and their legal advisors. Professor Morgan did not see the draft. Counsel for Mylan - in addition to identifying typographical errors and making other points - questioned the appropriateness of my criticisms of Professor Morgan, and referred me to the decision of the Court of Appeal in Re W ([2016] EWCA Civ 1140), a case which considered (in rather different circumstances) the extent to which it was appropriate to make factual findings in relation to persons not directly before the court (i.e., witnesses not parties), but named as part of a factfinding exercise conducted by a judge in the Family Court. Whilst I do not consider Re W to be precisely on point, I have revisited the draft with Mylan’s points regarding Professor Morgan specifically in mind. I am grateful to Mylan for raising the matter so clearly - it was right to do so. However, having considered the matter most carefully, I have not materially changed the terms of the draft, and I should explain why:

(i) An expert is responsible for his or her evidence, including the precise wording of any report submitted to the court under the name of that expert. In many cases, the expert will be in need of, and will receive, assistance from the solicitors (or other lawyers) who have retained that expert. That is entirely understandable, but only serves to enhance the importance of the expert being entirely satisfied that his or her opinion is properly reflected in the report(s) submitted in that expert’s name. This is the duty of the expert, and it is not one that can be delegated.

(ii) An expert will be giving opinion evidence in relation to a subject-matter with which a lay person - specifically, in this case, the judge - will be unfamiliar. That is why the evidence is needed. It is incumbent on the expert not merely to present evidence that is technically correct, but that makes a fair presentation of the expert’s opinion. If the expert does not do that, then criticism is liable to follow. (iii) It must be emphasised that such criticism is not intended in any way to be personal or punitive. It is an intrinsic part of assessing the weight to be attached by the court to the expert evidence that is adduced before it. The criticisms that I have made of Professor Morgan must be seen in this light. They are made purely and simply because I need to explain to the reader of this judgment precisely why I have preferred - on critical points - the evidence of Professor Roth over that of Professor Morgan. That has involved a very close parsing of material parts of Professor Morgan’s written evidence, together with the oral evidence he gave in relation to that written evidence.

(iv) To put the same point differently: it would be unacceptable for me to say simply that I preferred the evidence of Professor Roth over that of Professor Morgan, without saying why. Oftentimes, the “why” will turn on technical matters of legitimate dispute between the experts, and the judge will explain why the approach of one expert has been preferred over that of another, it being accepted that each expert was doing his or her best to assist the court. That is the ordinary case. This - for reasons that I have set out in this judgment - is not such a case.

(v) The suggestion was made that the substance of the criticisms I have made of Professor Morgan’s evidence were not put to Professor Morgan. I do not accept this contention. All of the aspects of Professor Morgan’s reports that I have seen fit to criticise were put to Professor Morgan by Mr Waugh, QC. I have - as is my duty - drawn my own conclusions from the totality of the evidence. The manner and form in which I have evaluated Professor Morgan’s evidence in light of the totality of the evidence is - as it should be - a matter for me.

Simon Berney-Edwards

Video Witnessing of Wills A Welcome Step, But Only if Safeguards are Met

Rob Cope

This September, a Statutory

Instrument (SI) was laid in the House of Commons, enabling changes in the way that Wills can be legally witnewssed. The change follows an announcement from the Ministry of Justice earlier this Summer, which recognised the difficulty for those who were shielding from Covid-19 or selfisolating to follow the normal legalities of making a Will – namely it being witnessed by two people.

The new law allows the witnessing of a Will to be carried out through video. After the Will is signed by the Testator, it is then posted to the two witnesses to sign through video conferencing too. It applies to Wills made from 31 January 2020 – when the first coronavirus case was registered in the UK – and is expected to remain in place until January 2022. Remember A Charity – the 200 strong coalition of charities working to inspire legacy giving – has welcomed the change, providing that the right sufficient safeguards are in place. Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, says:

“With over 100 people across the UK leaving a gift to charity in their Will every day, charitable Will-writing is becoming increasingly popular and it’s all the more vital now while charities are facing critical funding shortages linked to the pandemic. Ultimately, the more accessible the UK Will-writing environment becomes, the easier it will be for people to leave a gift in their Will.”

Legacy giving is the largest single source of voluntary income, raising over £3 billion for charity annually. This income has enabled many charities to continue to offer services during the height of the pandemic, while so many other funding streams were closed or heavily reduced, including events like the London Marathon through to charity shops. The consortium highlights that even a small increase in the number of people leaving a gift could raise millions of urgently needed funding, helping to tackle the current funding threat to frontline services.

Remember A Charity stresses the importance of always having sufficient rigour and safeguards in place to protect the public and ensure their final wishes will be met.

Cope says: “There are few that would argue with the fact that the process of Will-writing in the UK needs updating. At Remember A Charity, we see video witnessing as a significant and welcome step to make Willwriting more accessible in Covid times. However, we’re conscious too that this decision brings in new areas of risk when it comes to issues such as undue influence and fraud. So, in these initial stages at least, we’d view it as a last resort.

“In other words, this route is ideal for those that it was created for – those that can’t have their Wills witnessed in person as they are isolating or for other reasons. But it won’t be right for everybody.”

With inheritance disputes on the rise, it seems all the more important that people’s Wills are completed correctly, minimising the room for doubt or contention.

Cope adds: “We’d encourage anyone writing a Will to seek professional guidance and support about the best route for them. A professionally written Will is invaluable, helping to ensure that people’s final wishes will be met, and that they can include all those things that truly matter to them; family, friends and good causes alike.”

Since the pandemic took hold in the UK in mid-March, demand for Willwriting and charitable bequests has risen considerably, with Remember A Charity receiving twice as much traffic to the ‘Making a Will’ section of its website.

He concludes: “The pandemic has helped people see the importance of getting their affairs in order and encouraged us all to reflect on those things we truly care about. This includes the charities that so many of us rely upon and the causes we are passionate about in our lifetimes.”

Find out more at: rememberacharity.org.uk.

St Columba’s College

St Columba’s College is an

independent Catholic day school for ages 4 to 18 in the heart of St Albans. It welcomes families of all faiths and none.

This year the College is welcoming girls as pupils into the Lower Prep (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) and Lower Sixth (Year 12). This will be followed by a phased transition to full co-education throughout the school. Just six months on from announcing the move to co-education, St Columba’s welcomed its first girls as pupils in Reception in January.

“We're excited to be adapting to the needs of our community,” says Headmaster Mr David Buxton, “and we look forward to providing a Columban education to boys and girls.”

For most pupils at St Columba’s, their educational journey starts in the Prep School then continues into the Senior School at age 11 before entering Sixth Form at 16. The school also welcomes applications from external candidates for entry into the Senior School at 11+, 13+ and Sixth Form.

Mr Buxton says: “Throughout each

phase of education, we create a nurturing environment where each pupil is challenged to achieve their own best academic standard, while becoming confident, resilient and compassionate individuals.

“We strive for academic excellence while aspiring to be very much more than simply an academic hot house. We foster a love of learning and a sense of personal, moral, social and cultural education.”

St Columba’s pupils are supported by a dedicated academic and support staff, and they become members of a strong and vibrant community of alumni, parents and staff, where lifelong friendships are established.

Over the last year the school’s remote learning programme has been a great success with parents and pupils of all ages. Staff have worked tirelessly to utilise a range of resources to deliver interactive and engaging lessons, following the normal timetables, and St Columba’s continued its provision of strong pastoral support.

The school has also embraced the latest technology for its Admissions processes holding a series of innovative, very successful online Open events during the pandemic. To find out more and to register for an event, contact the Admissions Team on admissions@ stcolumbascollege.org or 01727 892040.