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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 recently successfully appealed a TOLATA case in The Court of Appeal. Margaret recently handled a case where assets were £40million and there were properties situated all over the world.
Margaret 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.co.uk/UK/Firms/4579-34245/39744
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 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. Gennette then joined the Howells team in 2002 and was appointed as a salaried partner in 2006 dealing with residential sales and 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 between the Cardiff and Swansea offices. Hannah works on a variety of legally aided and private work 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 a fluent Welsh speaker. 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.
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Victoria obtained her LPC from Cardiff Law School, and joined Howells in 2006 after working in Real Estate and Litigation across Bristol and Cardiff. Since her appointment in Howells, Victoria has worked in our new-build department and qualified as a solicitor in March 2008. Although Victoria specialises in new-build transactions, she occasionally deals with residential transactions and has experience with leasehold, shared ownership and high value transactions around the UK.
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Gill Wells
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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 somoeone as specialised as Alison join the firm and look forward to her expanding the private client services that we provide.
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Lisa initially graduated in 2003 after completing an English Degree and a Masters Degree, she then completed the law conversion course and Legal Practice Course at Cardiff University.
Lisa qualified as a solicitor in 2007after completing her training contract in a Swansea based law firm. She then worked for a law firm in Cardiff specialising in Employment Law before moving to Howells Solicitors in October 2009. Lisa specialises in all aspects of employment law including Redundancy, Contract Terms, Unfair, Constructive and Wrongful dismissal, Discrimination of all types and Maternity, Paternity and parental issues.
Lisa has a keen interest in Marketing having completed a Marketing Diploma last year and encompasses this in her role as a solicitor.
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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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Darren Thomas
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Sue joined the firm in 1995 and has over 20 years residential conveyancing experience. She is a conveyancing executive with a BA Hons Law Degree. Sue is based in our Newport office and specialises in New Build work. Her role includes acting for a range of national developers and for individual buyers of new properties. Acting for both developers and buyers provides her with a full understanding of the new build market and its specific requirements.
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Richard is a very experienced Licensed Conveyancer with over 15 years residential conveyancing experience. Richard is currently 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.
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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Jessica joined Howells Solicitors in April 2006 and deals with all aspects of Wills and Probate work, including the drafting of Wills and administering Estates. Jessica also specialises in the drafting of Declarations of Trust relating to property ownership matters.
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