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Growing competition in the sector, increasingly price conscious consumers, and talent retention are just some of the concerns facing today’s legal leaders. The winners are those with a growth mindset. Technology and automation, flexible working, positive talent management, and a fun, inclusive culture are some of the practices adopted at Best Solicitors.

Led by triathlete, child care solicitor, and CEO Donna Tilbrook, Sheffield headquartered Best Solicitors is facing these challenges head on.

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Donna said: “The legal sector has changed and continues to evolve. We have successfully delivered legal solutions to individuals and businesses in Sheffield, and beyond, for 21 years. We recognise that we must not only keep up with a changing landscape, but also stay ahead of the curve.

“We intentionally recruit talent from other sectors to bring fresh ideas to the table. We have a dedicated continuous improvement coordinator recruited from fastmoving retail environments, including John Lewis, and finance and project management experts, from challenging manufacturing backgrounds, helping us drive the business forward.

“Technology, automation, and efficient workflows have been introduced to support our teams to work smarter. Clients experience a continually improving service.

“Our people are our biggest asset, and we recognise that we need to demonstrate this with clear action. We operate an open culture where everyone is invited and encouraged to contribute ideas and a commitment to training to upskill staff.

“We invest in employees who are keen to progress their career and offer the technology to enable flexible working. We have nurtured a positive, supportive culture where camaraderie is a given. We work hard, but place emphasis on having fun together as a team recently enjoying a day at Rother Valley Country Park.”

Best Solicitors was established with social justice at the heart of the practice. Starting the business representing clients in child care and criminal proceedings, the firm has since grown to offer a range of legal solutions including family, wills & probate, conveyancing, commercial property, personal injury, employment and landlord and tenant services.

Change has played a significant role in its evolution with the business recently marking its fifth anniversary in Barnsley. Changing its structure to a limited business earlier this year, the firm has invested in its IT and marketing while picking up awards along the way – including Private Client Team of the Year, and Commercial Property Team of the Year, at the Sheffield & District Law Society 2023 Legal Awards.

Donna continued: “Businesses today must embrace the future in order to thrive. We are growing, changing, and adapting - and will continue to do so.” www.bestsolicitorsonline. co.uk

Carrie, who has worked her way through the ranks over the last decade, becomes just the third Chief Exec of the chamber, and the first woman in the role since its merger in 2007. To help her continue their success story, Carrie has appointed long-time colleague Shane Young as Operations Director, who has also worked at the chamber for ten years. unLTD’s Phil Turner caught up with the pair to talk about their decade-long rise and what makes them stand out from the crowd…

Can you start by telling us a bit about your backgrounds?

CS: I’m from Nottingham originally, and then moved up here. I started working for one of our member companies, British Gas Centrica, looking after electrical training for the company. My involvement with the Chamber started through their membership services, so I was going to events and actually met Andrew (Denniff, former Chief Exec) at a policy meeting that I shouldn’t have been at. I then joined the chamber in July 2013 as a membership exec, out there talking to businesses, explaining the benefits and the importance of being part of a chamber. After overseeing Chamber Skills Solutions and supporting businesses through COVID, in December, I became Chief Exec. It all started nearly ten-years-ago now, and I’ve never looked back.

I stumbled across the role at the chamber, I didn’t know what a chamber was, but I went for it because it was a sales role. Along with Carrie, we smashed that for a couple of years, and we’ve worked our way up in different roles. From May onwards I’ll be working under Carrie, as the Ops Director, which is really exciting.

CS: It’s exciting because over those ten years it’s almost come full circle. In the first two years as membership execs we were working really closely together as a team. Then, through our progression, we kind of moved away from each other. Now the circle is closing, and the team is back together. It’s really quite nice, and quite calming to know that we’re doing this together.

To join so close together and to both still be here, that’s quite unusual in any organisation, but to now be leading the organisation, you must work well together and have a balance of qualities that complement each other.

SY: I started two weeks after Carrie, in the same role. Selling is my background really and when

CS: Absolutely. I’m more of a bigger picture person, who can say to Shane, ‘this is how I see it happening, Shane how are we going to do it? and that’s how we complement each other. We had a meeting many years ago, and Shane might not remember this, but we did a presentation in a school explaining where we’ve come from, and we’ve come from very different backgrounds, and education streams, and had different experiences. The fact that we’ve come together, and we are really quite close in the workplace, and very supportive outside of the workplace, you can’t bottle that. If you could, businesses would be buying it off the shelf! I’m a big believer in fate, and we are the right people, at the right time. Shane’s very supportive of me and we just bounce off each other. We’re usually on the same page, but we’re not afraid to say, actually, I don’t agree with you either, but it’s still very respectful. I think that’s quite rare.

SY: We have no problem challenging each other and that’s important in any business. No matter who’s at the top or who’s at the bottom, you’ve got to have colleagues challenging each other. Things have happened in our lives outside of work that have drawn us together and created more of a natural connection. We both always seem to be wanting to go on the same journey. I might go off that way a little bit, Carrie might go the other, but we’ll get to the same spot in the end. It might be a surprise to some, but it’s not a surprise to us that we’ve worked our way through the ranks and got where we want to be.

What do you feel like you both bring to the chamber?

CS: You’re going to laugh at us for saying it, but it is genuinely that we care about what we do. This isn’t just a login work for eight hours a day and then log off again. To work in a chamber of commerce, you’ve got to understand it. You’ve got to really be involved. You’ve got to be emotionally connected to who you’re talking to and you genuinely want to help and assist. We love what we do. This is us; the chamber is in our blood now.

SY: It’s a weird and wonderful world, the chamber, and every day is different. The fact that you’re always around inspirational business owners and business leaders is very good for you personally in the role. You feed off the positive energy that they bring. It’s quite inspiring.

The Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber is in extremely good health these days, how has the chamber changed to become so successful over the ten years you’ve been involved?

SY: First and foremost, Andrew has been a big influence. He’s been a fantastic boss over the last ten years and has built an amazing platform for us to continue. He should leave feeling very proud. Our purpose is to serve our members and to help them in their business, whether it’s raising their profile, growing the network, protecting them, lobbying, external affairs, policy, or whatever it may be, that’s why we’re here, and I think it’s fair to say not every chamber in the UK sees that as its purpose. We’re very membership driven. What we realised, early on when we were selling, is that we didn’t really have a membership journey in place. There wasn’t a lot of touch points, so, even though we were good at what we did in terms of sales, the retention wasn’t as good as it could be. Just introducing that membership journey, getting our members to understand us as people, rather than just the chamber, and also understanding them, rather than just their brand, I think is really important. We’re so proud to be the second-best chamber in the country for retention. It’s something we need to be shouting about. We’re here to support our members and retain our members in order to help them grow and prosper, especially in a challenging climate.

CS: Strategically, we are the voice of business for our 1100 members, we are that pinpoint to say ‘these are the problems’ and get that message to the right people; be it central government, local government, or local councillors, we are there to challenge where appropriate and to celebrate where appropriate.

That must be difficult when you’ve got 1100 members, because must all have different voices, issues and opinions.

CS: It is difficult, but that’s what we’re here to do. 95% of the time with members issues, there’s usually a golden thread, where the issues are the same for majority of business owners across our patch. For the rest of them, we can have that one to one discussion to say ‘right, you’ve got an issue with X, Y and Z, let’s see what we can do for you.’ Our members really value that we step in, or that we’ve got the phone number for them to speak to someone directly. These are areas that we need to improve on, and I want to do more of that as well as more public lobbying. We do a lot as South Yorkshire, but I want to do a lot more for Barnsley and Rotherham specifically. We’ve got fantastic relationships with both of the chambers in the in the region, however, I feel that we should have a stronger voice to Barnsley and Rotherham directly. I in

London recently with the British Chambers of Commerce and what some people think of as little old Barnsley and Rotherham is actually ruffling a few feathers with our retention figures and the size of the membership.

SY: We’re a two-town chamber and we definitely punch above our weight when you look at the benchmarking from British Chambers that come out every year. That’s getting noticed in central London.

CS: When I walked in as the newbie, they knew exactly who we are and exactly how we’re performing and some of the chambers were very jealous of that. That’s testament to Shane and the team, and Andrew. We’ve only got 14 staff versus some other chambers in the UK network, who have got 140 or 150 staff and only 900 members or 1000 members. We are very proud of what we do and how we deliver it and I think the figures speak for themselves.

Do you think chambers have had to evolve in recent years to remain traditional elements that I think we should still do, but we just do them slightly differently.

Is this the toughest economic climate you’ve experienced since you’ve been involved with the chamber, and how do you help businesses navigate this landscape?

CS: It is unprecedent times, but a tangible way we can help is by offering continuity. We offer that personal approach. If someone is waking up in the middle of the night thinking about an issue, they know that they can ring Shane the next day and get an answer or be signposted to the right place. It’s very difficult to predict how things are going to turn out at the moment, but what I can guarantee is that we’re not going anywhere. We will be that consistency that businesses need.

SY: Businesses have come out of the pandemic extremely resilient. While it’s unprecedented times, I genuinely believe that businesses are more open to discussing the pressures and challenges they face.

What does the future hold for the chamber?

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SY: I believe so. I think there is still a certain stereotype that a Chamber of Commerce is an old school approach, but I know the three chambers in South Yorkshire have broken that perception in terms of what we do. We try and put on quirky events, sociable events, it’s not just your stereotypical, old blokes in grey suits mentality. It’s inclusive for everyone, as a chamber of commerce should be, and it’s accessible. Some businesses still think we’re part of the local authority or that it’s kind of an old boy’s club. I’ve never experienced that in the ten years I’ve worked here, but hearing historical stories, you can understand why there’s still that perception, but we’re doing everything we can to break that.

CS: I think we now reflect the business landscape. The fact that there’s a female chief exec, and the fact that we’re relatively young, that’s quite rare across the network. We’re coming at it with a fresh pair of eyes. The chamber is over 100 years old and there are some

SY: We want to grow, but we want to do that organically, like any good membership organisation should. We will be expanding the team to have additional staff working within the membership department, which is very exciting and will hopefully take the good work we’ve done onto the next level.

CS: I can’t give you too much detail now, but we are also looking at additional benefits for members, to reflect the current climate and to help businesses through these next few months and maybe years. We can hopefully announce them later this year. The next thing we’re going to be doing is refreshing the website, to give members more opportunities on there, so that’s very exciting. We’re also slowly updating our space, and the branding, to reflect how we operate. Events will carry on, but bigger and better, so it’s going to be a busy next six months. But mainly, we just want people to know that there are two people heading up the chamber who have been here for ten years and genuinely care about it. It’s very exciting times.