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Sarah Naffine

Sarah Naffine is Lodders’ HR director and people champion, expertly blending strategic support with hands-on practical support for staff, all while being a passionate ambassador for the firm. As well as working closely with our managing partner, Sarah is a core member of Lodders' Operations team.

“The role of HR is vast and ever changing, but maintaining a people-first mindset is key.

Part of my role at Lodders is to support the strategic plan, ensuring the firm has strong foundations, and a wellsupported workforce. It’s exciting to be part of the strategic team, and having a role in Lodders’ growth is so rewarding, whether it’s working with employee wellbeing, development, recruitment, retention and reward, or employee relations, engagement, diversity, inclusion – it’s certainly a role for an agile-thinker and a hard worker, and not one for the faint-hearted.

Agile working, which combines office-based and remote or home working, is working well. It has been a massive undertaking and it will take time to embed this new culture, and most important is that we ensure agile working works for all. It’s vital that staff feel connected and supported wherever they are, and continue to receive support, advice and supervision from their wider teams.

Recruitment and retention is another large part of my role. Attracting good talent is always difficult and the market has changed significantly since the pandemic. But Lodders is a great firm, with a clear vision, tangible ambition and a truly supportive and friendly team, and it’s rewarding that we get such positive feedback from our new recruits, whether they’ve been practising as a solicitor for 20 years or it’s their first time working in a law firm. We really do have a unique culture, and it’s a firm that I am incredibly proud to be part of.

A few years ago, I decided to go back to school and broaden my skill set, so most of my spare time is taken up with study. Having qualified as a Life Coach and Hypnotherapist, I will soon be fully qualified as a psychodynamic, person centred and CBT therapist. This is probably one of the most difficult things I have ever done, but it enables me to use some of my time away from work to help others who require support with life issues.

I also enjoy playing with cars, dinosaurs and paw patrol figures, which are my grandson’s current toys of choice. Spending time with a 3-year-old certainly keeps you grounded."

Wellbeing for all staff is crucial, across physical, mental and financial health. In particular, normalising discussions around our mental health and to feel listened to and supported is always top of my agenda.

Heidi Brennan

The construction industry has faced some major challenges in the last few years, from Brexit, a global pandemic and now the continuing conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. The impact of all of this is felt in rising costs and the well-publicised lack of availability of both materials and labour, making it harder for projects to be delivered on time and on budget. Challenging times such as these call for expert advisers, and there are few construction law specialists with Heidi Brennan’s experience, client care skills and commercial nous. Matthew Burgin, joint MD of Stoford Properties, concurs: “Heidi pushes projects forward, whilst always demonstrating excellent technical knowledge, great organisational skills and a professional approach.”

Amanda Peachey

With 20 years in the finance team under her belt, accounts manager Amanda Peachey has seen substantial change during her time at Lodders, from increased regulation and new technology, and rapid growth through to pandemic-enforced changes to working patterns.

"As the accounts manager, I ensure that Lodders complies with accounts rules laid down by our sector’s governing body, the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We have regular inspections (a bit like Ofsted), and and our last audit resulted in an unqualified report, which means we have no serious breaches of the rules and so the report does not need to be submitted to the SRA for further investigations. I am also responsible for making sure that our day-to-day financial transactions are in order. This might include scheduling and making payments to suppliers or managing and allocating payments from clients.

I have a team of two and I enjoy the management responsibilities and seeing my team flourish and grow into their roles.

As head of Construction at Lodders, Heidi leads a talented team that acts for many of the Midlands’ most active developers, contractors and occupiers.

The team provides advice on all forms of construction-related documentation, working on development projects from inception to completion and across a broad spread of sectors.

Against the backdrop of Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine war, the construction sector is also dealing with a turbulent insurance market and pressure to find more sustainable methods of building:

“Occupiers are increasingly demanding BREEAM ratings of ‘excellent’ and an EPC rating of ‘A’,” explains Heidi. “This puts more pressure on the construction industry, but it is fantastic to see more businesses building better for the future.”

Accounts work needs attention to detail, a calm, unflappable approach and an appetite for hard work.

I see all of these qualities in my team, and I am proud that we are able to support the firm as it continues to grow and develop. I also work closely with our finance director, Alistair Howard. As the firm continues to grow I expect my role will also continue to grow and I am looking forward to being able to support Alistair more and take on some of his responsibilities.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, we all had to move to homeworking. It went pretty smoothly on the whole although we had to wait for some of the external accounting technology to catch up, but it was soon sorted! As a team we needed to make changes in the way we worked, and we’ve continued to offer flexible working between the office and home, which works well within the team.

October 2021 marked my 20-year anniversary with Lodders. There’s been a huge amount of change over this time but our friendly and supportive culture has endured, and I’m looking forward to many more years here!"