The Champagne corks are popping at Buckles Solicitors, which has clinched a top national industry award as ‘Law Firm of the Year’.
The company – which has offices in Peterborough, Nottingham and Stamford – was presented with the highly coveted LawNet Law Firm of the Year award at a special ceremony.
Buckles – which last won the accolade in 2011 – were among the winners from a number of categories announced at during the LawNet conference and dinner in the West Midlands.
Buckles managing partner Colleen Gostick, who won the LawNet’s Managing Partner of the Year award in 2008, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this prestigious award and my huge thanks to every member of the team who has contributed to Buckles achieving this fantastic award.
“We have had an amazing year, and this achievement is the icing on the cake for us.”
LawNet was established in 1989 to form a collaborative, non-competing national network where independent law firms could access big firm resources and benefit from collective purchasing, shared knowledge, best practice and expertise.
The LawNet judging panel concluded: “Our winning firm has demonstrated impressive growth over recent years, driven by a clear strategic focus on incremental improvements across all aspects of the business. Consistently exceeding its development targets, our winners have implemented firm wide change programmes acheiving outstanding client service and employee engagement results.”
Meanwhile, the celebrations continue as three senior members of senior staff celebrate a collective 80 years with the company.
Long service awards are being presented to:
- Managing Partner Colleen Gostick, who joined Buckles in 1985. Colleen has been managing partner since 2001 and during this time the company has seen massive investment in expansion, recruitment and premises, transforming the firm from a high street practice, to the thriving, sustainable entity it is now.
- Partner and head of property litigation Paul Branch is celebrating 30 years at Buckles. As the company’s own eco-warrior, Paul’s personal caseload includes property disputes from Local Authorities and he undertakes contentious trust litigation involving multi-party property rights claims arising out of multi-million pound property portfolios within the UK and overseas, as well as a broad range of more modest local and regional contentious property work.
- Notching up 20 years with Buckles is partner Duncan Jackson, who heads up the private client department. With a recent expansion of the department, Duncan’s experience and dedicated team is able to provide a range of services through Buckles’ Peterborough, Nottingham and Stamford offices.
