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Our staff
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John qualified as a Solicitor is 1977, working in general practice dealing with residential and commercial conveyancing, wills, trust and probate matters, crime, family matters and personal injury litigation.
In 1996, he and two other partners, now his current partners Philip J Howell and T Mark Hobbs, were the founding partners of the firm of Howells. John is a Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and since its inception in 1999 has been on the Court of Protection's panel of professional deputies, handling complex property and other financial affairs of persons who lack capacity. Matters are referred to him by the Office of the Public Guardian and local firms of solicitors. Other Private client work involves assisting in the writing of Wills, the creation of lifetime trusts, planning Inheritance Tax mitigation, property preservation, the management of private trusts, estate administration.
John is able to benefit his clients and colleagues with almost 40 years of experience across many disciplines of the legal system.
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Mark is a graduate of University College, Cardiff being awarded an LLB (Hons) and the Craddock Wells Scholarship. Following qualification as a Solicitor he specialised in property and commercial matters.
Between 1984 and 1996 Mark was an Equity Partner in a large Cardiff practice where he established the Commercial Department. In 1996 he established Howells, where he remains an Equity Partner. He heads the Company Commercial and Commercial Property Divisions. His work includes site acquisitions and assembly, complex investment and lease back transactions and secured lending for a number of Banks. He is also responsible for the volume conveyancing that the firm undertakes and is used to supervising a department of approximately fifty people.
Mark and his team have been responsible for some very substantial commercial and commercial property deals across the firm's six branches.
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Philip Howell is a founder Partner of the firm. Philip has 30 years experience of new build, general residential and re-mortgage conveyancing. Philip’s teams handle high volumes of a wide range of conveyancing transactions – including shared ownership – for the firm’s significant South and West Wales client base.
The new build team also handles the property sales to purchasers from the majority of the major developers and also act for Bellway Homes across Wales and also the South West of England.
Philip is the only solicitor member of the New Homes Marketing Board, a new body representing the needs of developers across Wales and supported by key players such as Lovells, Wimpey, Redrow, Persimmon, Westbury, Llanmoor Homes, Barratt Homes and Bellway Homes. The group was formed to share ideas across the construction industry.
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Qualified in 1979, Margaret Phillips is a graduate of the University of Wales and is a highly regarded lawyer with over 30 years’ experience of Matrimonial & Family Law. As Head of the firm’s Matrimonial & Family Department, Margaret handles high value and complex matters including issues involving trusts and pension related matters. She also deals with cases involving overseas properties. Margaret has successfully appealed a TOLATA case in The Court of Appeal.
Margaret has handled a case where assets were £40million and there were properties situated all over the world and recently carried out a very complicated Trust of Land case. This case went to the Court of Appeal and Margaret won. This case has been reported in the Law Reports.
For the past few years, Margaret has been mentioned in the Chambers publication. Chambers list all the solicitors that they consider to be leaders in their chosen fields. You cannot apply to be mentioned in Chambers. You have to be recommended by other firms, solicitors or barristers.
http://www.chambersandpartners.com/UK/Firms/4579-45057/39744
Margaret has been a member of the law Society Family Law Panel for 10 years, has been Secretary of Women in Law for 25 years and is an Associated Member of the Council of Cardiff law Society.
Margaret has written numerous articles for local newspapers on current topics of law. Her most recent article was for the Guardian and can be viewed below
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/16/annalisa-barbieri-divorce-property#history-byline
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Jayne joined Howells in 2002 and is the branch manager at the Caerphilly office and heads up the matrimonial department there. She has been a qualified solicitor for 29 years and specialises in family law.
At Howells, Jayne deals with all aspects of family law including divorce, cohabitation, domestic violence and children matters. She is a member of the Advanced Family Law Panel and Legal Services Review Committee and is the Legal Services Commission representative for Howells.
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Andrea is one of our salaried partners and branch managers at Howells. Andrea has a welath of experience in her chosen field Conveyancing and is also a very good general practitioner.
Andrea also handles Commercial Conveyancing transactions.
Andrea is an extremely experienced solicitor and recently sat as a shadow board member of RCT Homes, and as president of the Pontypridd and Rhondda DL Society 2006-2007.
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Genette qualified as a Solicitor in 1999 after graduating in 1996 with an LLB (Hons) and completing her LPC.
Prior to taking up her role in Howells, Genette practised as a residential property lawyer acting for private clients and developers. Genette then joined the Howells team in 2002 and was appointed as a salaried partner in 2006 dealing with residential sales, purchases and remortgages.
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Rhidian joined Howells in 2004, having previously worked within the corporate lending legal sector. Rhidian provides a full range of property services including property acquisitions and disposals, secured lending, and all aspects of commercial landlord and tenant work. Rhidian works on both commercial and residential property developments, assisting developers with site acquisitions, the development documentation, infrastructure, statutory and planning agreements, any associated construction documentation and advising clients on the disposals to contract.
Rhidian provides specialist work for the Healthcare sector, including mergers, acquisitions, disposals and all property issues relating to Nursing Homes, Care Homes, Doctors Surgeries, Dental Practices and private hospitals.
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Howells are pleased to announce that Claire Davis has joined their ranks as a Partner and Head of the Private Client & Asset Management department. Claire was born and lives in Newport. She trained as a Solicitor at her family firm Le Brasseur Davis & Sons, under the guidance of her uncle, Tom Davis and father Gilbert Davis and specialised particularly in Wills, Probate, Estate Planning and Elderly Client work.
Claire is the only Welsh Solicitor on the board of directors of Solicitors for the Elderly, a national organisation of lawyers who specialise in the field of looking after clients in later life and is proud of the work that they do and her role in the organisation. The organisation has a national and local voice in ensuring that the concerns and needs of Carers, the vulnerable, and those in later life are represented to bodies such as the Court of Protection and Office of the Public Guardian. Claire also has close links with many local charities including the Alzheimer’s Society, Mencap and Age UK.
Claire acts professionally on behalf of many individuals both young and old where they have lost or are losing capacity either through illness or devastating head injury as a result of an accident. Claire helps those individuals and their families to manage their financial affairs and protecting them from potential risk and harm. She helps families create Powers of Attorney and deputyships where needed and to take such steps as are possible to protect assets from the potential impact of care home fees.
Claire deals with the often complex and stressful area of Probate ensuring that clients are cared for with great sensitivity at this difficult time. She is experienced in dealing with estate ranging from small to those worth many millions of pounds but treats each estate with equal importance tailoring the service she offers to the particular needs of the client. The spectre of dealing with IHT calculations and mitigating against these where possible is a challenge she relishes! She deals with the unfortunate disputes that can arise between families over Wills or the lack of them and can often avoid lengthy and costly litigation by assisting clients in coming to terms with the issues they have raised.
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Hannah qualified as a solicitor in March 2006 and now works as a matrimonial solicitor in our Cardiff office.
Hannah works on a variety of legally aided and private work.
Hannah helps her clients with a variety of issues including divorce, cohabitation disputes, matrimonial finances, injunctions and children matters.
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Sara heads up the Residential Conveyancing department at the Swansea office and is also the branch manager.
Sara qualified as a legal executive in July 2004, but has worked in the conveyancing field for the past 10 years.
Sara’s current role as a fee earner requires her to manage the day-to-day running of the conveyancing files, to be responsible for maintaining good relationships with key contacts and to attract new business to the firm.
Sara is also a fluent Welsh speaker.
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Helen qualified in 2004 after spending the majority of her training contract working in the field of family law.
She joined the family department of a large Swansea firm and has worked exclusively in the field of family law undertaking all aspects of family work, to include Divorce, Ancillary Relief, Children (Private and Public Law), Cohabitation and Injunctions. She is also on the Law Society Family Law Panel.
Helen is based in our Swansea Office and we are delighted to have Helen join our ranks.
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Richard started his legal career in Cardiff with a niche family law firm in 2001. He qualified as a solicitor in 2003 and initially specialised in the fields of family law, children law and civil litigation. Richard then moved to a large firm of solicitors based in Swansea in 2004 to specialise in family law, becoming an associate solicitor with that firm in 2007. Richard then returned to Cardiff to join Howells Solicitors as an associate in November 2011. Richard continues to practice in all aspects of family law including divorce, financial matters, private and public law children work, cohabitee disputes as well as cases involving domestic violence. Richard is an accredited specialist in the field of family law and is on the Family Law Panel. Away from work, Richard enjoys all sports but is more of a spectator rather than a participant these days! In particular, he enjoys rugby, boxing, squash and motor racing.
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Gill is an experienced Family Law Solicitor having qualified in 1989. She has worked for Howells since 2002. Gill has largely worked in the South Wales Valley's and offers practical common sense advice in cases where there may not be much money to be divided but the relatively little in issue can make a substantial difference to a particular Client. Gill deals with divorce, financial issues for both married and unmarried couples, and children's matters (contact, residence, etc) and has previously been a member of both the Law Society Family Panel and an Accredited Specialist by Resolution (in low income and children's matters). Gill offers a 'down to earth' approach to family matters. Gill has three teenage children, the youngest of whom is a talented tennis player and is currently ranked No1 in Wales in her age group. As a result Gill works part time but is invariably accessible to deal with enquiries even when she is not in the office.
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Alison studied at Queen Mary College and the College of Law, London before returning to her native South Wales to complete her training as a solicitor.
Alison has specific expertise in advising older clients, often finding innovative solutions in response to individual needs. She is a member of the Solicitors for the Elderly specialist panel and is one of a very small number of solicitors in Wales recognised by the Legal Services Commission as an Expert in Community Care law (relating to provision of services to the elderly and disabled).
She has written a number of journal articles and spoken on topics relating to payment for care and financial abuse of the elderly.
Alison joins Howells with special responsibility for older clients and in particular advising them on protection of assets and helping those entering long term care establish their rights. She has successfully recovered considerable amounts of money for clients where she has proved that assets should not have been taken to fund care. We are delighted to have someone as specialised as Alison join the firm and look forward to her expanding the private client services that we provide.
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Christopher read Law in Liverpool University and obtained an Honours Degree in 1972. He also had the Honour of captaining the English University’s Rugby team and still remains a keen rugby and sporting fan. Following on from University, Chris then attended the College of Law, Guilford to obtain his Law Society Part 2 Professional Examinations.
Chris joins the team at Howells after a successful law career with Gartsides Solicitors in Abergavenny where he was a partner and more recently at Gabb & Co based in Powys.
Chris brings a wealth of experience in all areas of law having worked in a general practice including Conveyancing, Probate, Matrimonial/Family and Criminal work. Based in our Newport branch Chris specialises in Civil Litigation including Personal Injury, Medical Negligence, Professional Negligence cases, Commercial Litigation and contract Disputes.
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Since qualifying as a solicitor in 2001, Rosalind has specialised in Claimant Personal Injury work. She has vast experience in dealing with Road Traffic Accidents, Accidents at work and Trip/Slip claims. Rosalind is based in our Cardiff city centre office, but can also travel to appointments in our regional offices.
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Karanne has joined Howells Commercial Property division having recently qualified as a Solicitor. She completed her LPC at Cardiff University and spent the majority of her Training Contract working on Property matters. Karanne specialises in providing services on all aspects of Commercial and Residential Property.
She has travelled widely and enjoys learning from different cultures. In her spare time Karanne enjoys keeping fit and trying out new sporting activities.
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Gemma studied for her Law Degree and Legal Practice Course/Post Graduate Diploma at the University of Glamorgan.
After graduating Gemma started work with a central Cardiff based Law firm in July 2006.
Gemma completed her training contract with the same Cardiff based Firm and qualified as a Solicitor in March 2010.
Gemma has 5 years experience working in her chosen field of conveyancing and deals with all areas of residential conveyancing including leasehold properties, new build transactions, re-mortgages, transfer of equity cases, Shared Ownership and Shared Equity schemes.
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Mick studied for his law degree and LPC at the University of Glamorgan. Mick also holds a BA in History and English from National University of Ireland Galway.
After graduating Mick joined a centrally based Cardiff firm where he undertook his training contract and qualified as a solicitor in 2006. Mick has experience in all aspects of residential conveyancing including freehold, leasehold and unregistered purchase and sales transactions as well as shared ownership transactions, Transfers of Equity and Re-mortgaging.
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Richard is a very experienced Licensed Conveyancer with over 15 years residential conveyancing experience.
Richard is based in our Caerphilly office dealing with local residential work and is also a Team Leader in a nationwide volume Residential Conveyancing Department of Howells Solicitors and deals with all types of transactions including Freehold and Leasehold Sales and Purchases and Shared Ownership cases.
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Gemma is a qualified licensed conveyancer, obtaining her qualification in February 2008, but has worked in Howells in various roles since 2003.
Gemma’s strengths lie in residential conveyancing, and in her current role she deals with volume residential conveyancing for one of Howells’ biggest clients and also covers local residential work.
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Tristan joined the Howells team after previously working as the Business Development Manager for a large commercial mortgage broker. Previous to that role he was the Broker Manager for Carlyle Business Finance, part of the Julian Hodge Group.
In his new role at Howells, Tristan is responsible for exploring new business opportunities, managing and maintaining business relationships and marketing. He has a Business Studies Degree from Swansea University.
In his spare time Tristan enjoys spending time with his family and socialising with friends. He keeps fit by kickboxing and attending his local gym. Tristan plays Aussie Rules Football and captains the Cardiff team and also plays for the National Welsh team.
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Elizabeth has a wealth of experience with regards legal accounting, with 12 years experience as a Senior Legal Cashier.
She is fluent in Spanish and enjoys experiencing different cultures. In 2008 Elizabeth took a career break and emigrated to Cyprus to live for a year. On her return Elizabeth joined Howells and heads up the Accounts Department and was appointed to the position of Practice Manager in March 2011.
Elizabeth has 2 young sons that keep her busy, but when she does find some spare time she enjoys socialising with friends and family.
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