Spotlight on

Billy Barber

“If you want something doing, ask a busy person.” This piece of advice could have been written with operational support and family practice manager, Graham ‘Billy’ Barber in mind.

Billy joined Lodders in July 2017 when we merged with renowned family law practice DFLP and he continues to be based in our Birmingham office with the dedicated Family Law team. Since the merger, Billy’s role has expanded to include both financial work and operational support as he explains: With five fee-earners and an average of 200 live matters at any one time, this work keeps Billy extremely busy. “By taking complete ownership of the financial aspects, I can let the legal team focus on what they do best, which is looking after clients and providing a high level of support and service.”

On the operational side, Billy works closely with Lodders’ operations director Alexis Nicholls, assisting across all four of our offices as well as taking prime responsibility for operations in the Birmingham office.

“No two days are the same,” Billy explains, “it ranges from overseeing contractors on renovation projects to managing the utilities contract, and from helping someone fix an IT issue through to humping shredding bags downstairs for collection! I’m often called ‘the go to’ person in our Birmingham office. It’s a small title but one that comes with a lot of responsibility. It’s nice to know that people can trust me to give them an answer to a problem or help them in some way; I am always pleased to know that I’ve been able to do something to make someone else’s day a little bit easier.”

Outside of work, Billy has a large group of long-term friends and spends time looking after his Dad, who, at 98, is still fiercely independent and going strong. “He just wants his card from the Queen!”, says Billy.

I look after all the financial work for the family team, allocating incoming money and processing all the costs, such as barristers’ fees. I also take care of all the monthly billing and any debt recovery – basically anything that involves a £ sign comes to me to action!

Faye Reynolds

The pandemic has produced a slew of new employment law, and these new rules were often announced with only a few days’ notice to digest and apply. Employment law specialist Faye Reynolds has been at the sharp end, helping Lodders’ clients to navigate through some very challenging situations.

“Grappling with the new legislation has been pretty demanding at times,” says Faye, “but it definitely keeps you on your toes – and I have valued being able to provide up-to-the-minute and informed support to both employers and employees.”

Personable, energetic and dependable, Faye joined Lodders’ Cheltenham team in February 2020, just before the first lockdown. Despite both internal and external relationships having to be largely developed remotely, Faye quickly established a strong rapport with colleagues and clients – one of the factors that led to her promotion to senior associate just 12 months later in February 2021. “I’ve had a lot of difficult conversations over the past year, with business owners facing some really tough and upsetting decisions,” says Faye. “What has been clear though is that the majority of employers have taken very seriously the impact of potential redundancies on their staff and have wanted to explore every option to avoid it.”

For some businesses however job cuts have been inevitable, and Faye has supported businesses through the redundancy process as well as helping many individuals to negotiate settlement agreements. “We’ve also seen whistleblowing claims,” Faye explains, “where employees feel that businesses are not providing a covid-secure working environment. And, there have been some cases where businesses have asked employees to work – unlawfully – whilst claiming furlough money.”

And what next for business owners as we emerge from the pandemic? “Employers are already shifting their focus to retention strategies,” says Faye, “employees will want to stay with businesses that have treated them fairly and with compassion. I’m also expecting to be helping businesses to navigate through their agile working strategies and challenges; it’s going to be another interesting 12 months for sure!”

“Spring 2020 was quite an intense period, as it no doubt was for many businesses, as we worked out how best to deal with lockdown, whilst looking after our staff and continuing to provide an excellent level of client service.”

Jane explains. “I’ve been really impressed and pleased with how the team has pulled together and got on with it – and fortunately we were well set-up from an IT perspective which meant we could transition very quickly to homeworking and, for almost all clients, provide a seamless service. Regular meetings, informal chats and socials have also been really important to help maintain our supportive and friendly culture.”

Jane Senior

Jane Senior is one of the equity partners at Lodders, leads the fast-growing Dispute Resolution team and is a core member of our operations committee, playing a vital role in adapting our working practices during COVID-19.

Since joining Lodders as head of dispute resolution, Jane has taken the team from two to 12 fee earners, overseeing the fastest-growing growth in the firm and with a broad spread of specialisms including professional negligence, probate disputes and contract disputes.

Property dispute resolution is a major area of expertise with seven individuals – including Jane – specialising in this area.

“The commercial property market continues to be busy and this drives a lot of our growth. We have also seen a considerable number of neighbour disputes over the past year or so, with more people working at home and focused on their properties.” reports Jane. This area of work is likely to continue growing as Jane was recently appointed to the RICS panel of boundary mediators, which is made up of about 14 solicitors, together with a similar number of surveyors, from across the country.

Not one to sit still, Jane set herself the challenge of relearning the piano during lockdown as well as masterminding a ‘DIY’ half-marathon. “The Warwick halfmarathon couldn’t happen because of the pandemic, so my running partner and I created our own race,” explains Jane, “we even had medals!”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Jane is an advocate of building in some fresh air to the day. “I find that getting outside for a walk every day is so valuable for positivity and also for perspective especially during busy or challenging times.”