Forbes Solicitors

Kella Bowers

Kella Bowers is Head of Insurance and previously Head of Forbes’ hugely successful and nationally recognised Inquests, Social Services and Abuse Claims Team. Kella is client partner for Zurich Municipal. Kella undertook work nationally and lead a team dealing with the numerous child sexual exploitation claims in two of the country’s largest and most controversial CSE claim groups for Rotherham MBC and Rochdale MBC. Kella is also highly experienced in dealing with adult social care, human rights cases and sensitive GDPR matters. Kella has an enviable national coverage of Social Services clients and worked previously with ALARM to produce a manual for the Management of Children’s Services Claims. Kella has also been involved with the Historic Abuse Litigation Forum and is a member of the FOIL Abuse Claims Practice and Procedure Strategic Focus Group. This group has been directly involved in creating and presenting a draft Pre-Action Protocol for Abuse work to the Civil Procedure Rules Committee and engaged in responses to the MOJ and CPRC with regards to recent consultations on PAPs and Remote Medical examinations. Kella co-leads the firm’s growing inquest and regulatory teams with Ridwaan Omar, dealing with complex article 2 inquests involving children and vulnerable adults. Kella has been recognised was a Recommended Lawyer and a Leading Individual by Legal 500 for several years. Kella Bowers and Chris Booth are excellent specialists in their own particular fields and will sort out extremely complex historic matters that seemed daunting beforehand.’ Kella was also been shortlisted for the Legal 500 Northern Powerhouse awards in the insurance lawyer of the year category. Kella is also a trustee of the Forbes Foundation charity.

Jonathan Clay

Jonathan is a partner and Head of BLM's General Insurance Sector and a member of BLM’s Executive Board.He manages the BLM relationship with two of our top 10 clients plus individual client relationships.Areas in which he has acted include the public and private sector on liability arising from public liability and employers’ liability claims; including the emergency services; historical sexual and physical abuse; management of group actions; failure to educate; data protection; defamation and electoral law.His experience has evolved into advising on managing the risks and improving the risk experience in employers' and public liability claims, providing policy advice and on legal risk services.He advised on an internal local authority inquiry into children services including the development of a data protection compliant policy for HR issues.He has attended the Judge Business School on a Professional Services Firm Leadership Executive training course.

Shirley Faragher

Shirley Faragher, Partner and Head of Housing Management has 15-years PQE. She has been working with Registered Providers since 2005 and has an excellent understanding of the challenges facing the sector. Shirley is a specialist advocate and has her Higher Rights qualification. As an experienced Solicitor Advocate Shirley attends trials and hearings throughout the country on behalf of Registered Providers. Shirley obtained the first without notice injunction from Preston County Court just days after Part 1 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 came into force. Specialising in ASB and Housing Management, Shirley advises on an array of issues including succession/ exchange, possession against trespassers, tenancy enforcement, mental health, equality and human rights. With a wealth of experience in addressing complex disability issues including lack of mental capacity and mental illness, Shirley works in partnership with her clients to find practical solutions whilst adopting a cost-effective approach. Shirley’s clients are enthusiastic advocates of the attentive service provided. Shirley regularly delivers training and has upskilled housing officers in several organisations enabling them to apply for their own without notice anti-social behaviour injunctions. This included bespoke training around preparing the applications and presenting at court. Mentoring and shadowing was provided to staff so that they felt supported through the process. Shirley has spoken at Forbes events in conjunction with partner agencies e.g. Police, Local Authorities and statutory bodies, to raise awareness around Cuckooing and County Lines. In addition, Shirley regularly provides internal training for client’s helping to upskill and empower staff

Catherine Kennedy

Catherine Kennedy is a Partner and Head of Housing Property with 37-years experience. She has extensive experience in development and commercial lease matters with commercial property transactions of all types, from Social Housing and Urban Regeneration to NHS estate reconfiguration, public private partnerships, funding/development scheme. Catherine’s acted for institutional investors, NHS, local authorities, charities, public bodies, registered providers, educational bodies, residential/ commercial developers on acquisitions, disposals and relating funding, planning, environmental and construction matters. Catherine specialises in complex redevelopment site assembly and disposals with related suites of development documents. She finds innovative solutions to complex site and title issues, unlocking sites for regeneration and development. She has worked closely with public sector clients to regenerate and rationalise their estates. Catherine’s worked with local authorities in connection with their redevelopment brief, devising streamlined procedures. Catherine is leading the team through substantial growth to achieve their ongoing development and commercial objectives . Catherine has overall responsibility for Property services and supports team members in dealing with complex transactions. She has extensive rationalisation experience devising efficient ways to undertake bulk transactions ensuring correct teams are put together to steer matters to conclusion in a timely manner.

Claire Opacic

Claire is a partner in the casualty team and deals with a mixture of employers' liability and public liability claims. She also handles claims with issues under the New Roads and Street Works Act and has experience with product liability claims under the Consumer Protection Act and Sales of Goods Act, acting for both manufacturers and suppliers.

Kirsty Varley

Kirsty is a Partner with 17-years post qualification experience, specialising in housing management and tenancy enforcement. In 2019 Kirsty completed a Masters in Legal Practice focussing on the ASB tools and powers and use of the Community Trigger. Kirsty is experienced in all aspects of housing management law; particular areas of focus include committal, possession and injunction proceedings for anti-social behaviour and other tenancy breaches including the trial advocacy, advising in relation to all manner of housing related issues such as tenancy terms, licenses, housing ombudsman investigations and dealing with the Information Commissioner. Kirsty has a particular interest in dealing with vexatious tenants and was awarded an LLM for her work on anti-social behaviour legislation and its interpretation and application to nuisance caused to social landlords. Being Higher Rights qualified Kirsty regularly represents clients in court, undertaking her own advocacy and providing clients with a seamless service from instruction to trial, and saving them thousands in counsel fees. Kirsty is a regular and familiar face in courts across the region. As an advocate, Kirsty is described as being “brave and determined” in court “really fights” for her clients and a “fantastic” advocate getting “great results”. Kirsty has been involved in many high profile, complex matters involving human rights and mental health issues. Kirsty has developed a national reputation regularly speaking at high-profile conferences such as the Resolve Anti-social Behaviour National Conference, speaking at seminars, drafting articles, sharing best practice and assessing the effectiveness of a new civil injunction that came into force in 2015. Kirsty recently spoke at the Greater Manchester Cuckooing conference and has also recently delivered sessions on Cannabis in social housing, hate crime and autism.She has partnered LHP to provide successful resolution to ASB and possession disputes.

Pauline Wild

Pauline took the role of Managing Partner in 2022 and prior to this she was the Head of the firm’s Corporate team overseeing the firm’s commercial strategy. Alongside the other members of the Executive Committee Pauline sets the strategic direction of the firm and plays a leading role in the delivery of that strategy and in the delivery and performance of our teams. Pauline has led on the development of the firm’s Purpose, Vision and Values and passionately believes in the difference between Forbes and other law firms and how we as a business redefine how people feel about lawyers from both an internal and external perspective. Pauline is a passionate, authentic, empathetic leader who truly cares about the development of others. Pauline has dedicated over 22 years of her career to Forbes and is exceptionally proud to be custodian of the firm in her role as Managing Partner. Pauline is a very well-respected corporate lawyer who has been consistently accredited in the Legal 500 as a leading individual in corporate work. Her impressive journey at Forbes, her understanding of the firm’s culture, its people, its clients and her deep understanding of business leaves her very well placed to lead the firm in the next phase of the firm’s journey.