The head of Buckles Nottingham office has hailed its first year in the city as “exciting” and says the practice is set to grow even further in 2016.
James Coppinger, Head of the Nottingham office, Partner and Head of Construction & Engineering at Buckles, says the Park Row firm, which has grown beyond expectations, has everything in place for a very strong 2016.
James says: “It has been fantastic being part of a new office and seeing the business grow, both in terms of the number of employees and clients. Within six months we had to take more office space as a result of increasing workloads which is testament to the personal way in which we deliver our services. From a city point of view, it’s great to see Nottingham attract more business and investors. There’s a very exciting feel around the city, and we want to remain a part of it.”
Buckles’ growth has seen it recruit across all specialisms over the last year. The office launched with James, Chris Faulkner, Senior Associate and Holly Smith, Senior Associate. Both Holly and Chris have excellent reputations and have been a catalyst for the firm’s ongoing success. The trio continue to be supported by James Maxey and Duncan Jackson.
In June 2015, Buckles recruited Charlotte Stojak to the company commercial department, a newly qualified lawyer who trained at an intellectual property firm in Leeds.
In August 2015, Louise Read joined from Geldards in Nottingham. Louise joined the Dispute Resolution team and specialises in commercial landlord and tenant work, dilapidations, service charge disputes, break clause issues and areas such as boundary disputes and adverse possession. Louise also bolsters Gail Sykes’ housing team which acts for many housing associations across the East Midlands and nationally.
Also in August, Luke Appleby joined as a solicitor and introduced dedicated Private Client services to the Nottingham office for the first time. Luke was previously Head of Department at Spearing Waite in Leicester and specialises in all areas of Wills, Probate, Tax and Trusts and has particular experience in providing advice to disabled children and their families.
The most recent appointment is Luis Arana Tagle who joined as solicitor in the Construction & Engineering department. Luis (who previously qualified in Argentina and New York) advises on a range of procurement and contentious issues, including drafting and negotiating construction and engineering contracts, professional team appointments and security documents.
“It’s a challenging and rewarding experience being part of a new business venture. We have the autonomy to make business decisions whilst being part of, and having the security and support of the firm as a whole behind us. There are very few opportunities such as this and so we chose our recruitment strategy very carefully to ensure that we have the right people on board who share our vision and enthusiasm.
“We’ve always operated on the basis that we are a full service law firm regardless of where our lawyers are based. In Nottingham, we now have a permanent private client offering in Luke, who has a wealth of experience and is very well regarded locally. This is a real boon for us as many other firms have not been able to operate both commercial and private client service lines as effectively and profitably as we have.
“Personally, I also feel we have benefited from some of the larger, national firms reorganising their service lines and concentrating certain practice areas to other cities such as Birmingham”.
James says Buckles’ key focus will now be to maintain and grow Buckles’ profile in the region. He adds: “Our plan is to foster and develop relationships with key intermediaries, identify new regionally based target clients and nurture existing relationships, attract new and exciting work; and to recruit the right people at the right time so we can continue our journey.”
