Welcome to our New Executive Committee Member

Get to know the Exec Team - Chaman Balu

In each edition of our SOLO Journal, we ask one of the Executive Committee Team a range of 10 random questions so that you can get to know them better. In this edition of Get to Know the Executive Team we speak to Chaman Balu, our newest member, of CLB Lawyers, to understand what enticed him into the world of Law, what motivates him, what his first job was and what job he would be terrible at.

WHY LAW?

I enjoy helping elderly clients plus, doing only private client work enables me to be more selective.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOUR CAREER? Being self-employed, I couldn’t work for anyone!

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

My work, the fact that I successfully run two law practices has been my biggest achievement.

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD? Teaching.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? Self-employed shop keeper.

WHAT ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THAT MOST PEOPLE HAVEN’T HEARD OF? History.

WHAT JOB WOULD YOU BE TERRIBLE AT? Being a Chef!

WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU LIKE TO DO THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY? Seeing my clients face to face – as some of my clients struggle to do zoom meetings.

WHAT HAVE YOU CREATED OF WHICH YOU ARE MOST PROUD? My Law practice.

WHAT THREE WORDS BEST DESCRIBE YOU? Honest, caring, proud.

Welcome to our New Executive Committee Member

In January this year we welcomed a new Executive Committee Member to the team, Chaman Balu. He had put forward a request to come and spectate at an Executive Committee Meeting.

Executive Committee Meetings take place quarterly, and Chaman attended the January meeting, and was elected to the Committee. It was clear that he would bring a wealth of knowledge, alternative thinking and a different perspective to an already diverse Executive Committee Team.

Having qualified as a solicitor in India in 1983, one would say that his journey has been a challenging one! Having settled in England, raising a young family and running grocery shop he found himself wanting to go back to what he had studied so hard for at Punjab University Chandigarh, Punjab, India

In 1993, Chaman joined Staffordshire University Law School and began his conversion qualification the CPE and then the Legal Practice

Course. In all, this took until 1996. Once he had qualified it took a further few years before he found a firm that would give him the opportunity to complete his articles and he qualified as a solicitor on 01/06/2004.

It wasn’t until 01/08/2005 that Chaman finally became self-employed the irony being that he bought the firm of Caswell, Lane & Bowater trading as CLB Lawyers which is also the initials of Chaman’s name - it was fate!

Since then, Chaman has gone on to expand that firm which already had three firms under it, to buying Dean & Co., in 2015, which had two branches under its umbrella. A further opportunity allowed him to expand his firm to two branches so, on 01/10/2020 he bought his new branch office which was originally known as Barry Green Solicitors.

The success of Chaman’s firm has allowed him to expand his workforce and enabled him to allow other solicitors to train with CLB

Lawyers. The main areas of work are Residential Conveyancing, Wills, Probate, Commercial Property leases, buying and selling Business, and their work is all private client based.

Chaman very much works in a calm, collected manner and luckily the ethos within the firm has the same calibre of staff. Having built up a good reputation in the area of Dudley, West Midlands the work coming into the firm is very much an existing loyal client base and ‘word of mouth’ which Chaman is extremely thankful and proud of.

Chaman has said that it is a privilege to be joining as an Executive Committee Member of the SPG and he hopes to add his experience and expertise to the Group.

If you would like to request to attend an Executive Committee Meeting, please email info@spg.uk.com

Jo Connolly, SPG Chair