2016: The Year of BPE Solicitors
When you think of 2016 there are some topics that will undoubtedly spring to mind: Brexit, Trump and untimely celebrity deaths. We’ve had some pretty big news stories here at BPE, though maybe not big enough to get us trending on Twitter!
We’ve had some very talented people join the team, including Alex Curtis (who re-joined us after 10 years!), Caroline Hart and Jennifer Emerson (to name but a few), as well as seven new trainees; we’ve had some people leave us for pastures new; and we’ve had people move up the ranks: in October we gained six new Partners.
Ian Griffiths joined BPE as Head of Construction & Engineering in July, Thornton Allen created our Residential Development team in September, and Helen Cankett took on the role of Head of Family in November.
Riyaz Jariwalla from our Litigation team travelled to Orlando for the annual INTA conference and our Commercial team have been following Brexit closely – check our Brexit page for regular articles on the subject.
Every team has been busy working for their clients and have helped to secure them the deals they wanted. Our Corporate team has completed deals for local company Neon Play and Bristol based Micrima, as well as for AIM listed company Totally Plc on their acquisition of Premier Physical Healthcare. Our Commercial Property team advised Lilian Faithfull Homes on the acquisition of Royal Court Care and continued to advise the Stobart Group on deals involving a £37m Disposal to Ford Motor Company, for which our new Partner Rebecca Maxwell won an award!
We launched our Brilliance programme of events to celebrate the extraordinary achievements and diverse talents that exist and flourish within the Cotswolds. Our first event was The Art of Diamonds, held in June at Beards Jewellers and our second was The Art of Christmas, which was held at the Highgrove Estate, the private estate of their Royal Highnesses, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.
Along with October’s annual employment law seminar with CIPD, we also held a Business Growth panel event with Hazlewoods, Business Growth Fund and QuoLux in November. We were also headline sponsors of the Cotswold Show and will be again in 2017. We will also continue to hold RePLY events to celebrate businesses based in the 5 valleys.
We continued our charity work with Senior Partner John Workman and Commercial Property Partner Tim Williams cycling through 940 miles of the heat and mountains of The Way of St James and a team completing the Extra Mile Challenge ending in the Alps. We also held our annual LINC Make a Will Fortnight and we sponsored the Art Couture Painswick Festival in July, where we had our own hat factory. 2017 is going to be an even bigger year for fundraising, as both friends and colleagues will walk the Macmillan Way for Macmillan Cancer Support, our nominated charity for 2017. Keep your eyes peeled for regular updates.
These are just a few of our highlights from 2016 and we hope 2017 will be even better. So Happy New Year to you all and we look forward to working with you in the coming year.
These notes have been prepared for the purpose of articles only. They should not be regarded as a substitute for taking legal advice.
