Rothera bray

On 1 June 2016 the firms of Rothera Dowson and Sharp Young and Pearce merged to form Rothera Sharp.

The firm: Rothera Dowson was an amalgamation in 1999 of the firm of Dowsons which can be traced back to 1824 and Rotheras, which was established soon after in 1827. Sharp Young and Pearce was formed through a merger in 2011 between Sharp and Partners, who were established in the mid-nineteenth century and Young and Pearce, whose origins date back to the 1900s. The history of the firm can therefore be traced back over 190 years.

Rothera Dowson’s and Sharp Young and Pearce’s client profiles were complementary and having eight offices between them enabled the firm to broaden the delivery of its legal services across Nottinghamshire. Both firms had a traditional level of personal service to clients and this has been retained to date.

Rothera Sharp serves a wide and varied client base, having large institutions and commercial businesses as clients as well as providing a service to small businesses and the private individual. This has been developed through the amalgamation of the different firms.

Types of work undertaken: The firm has one of the largest and most capable family law departments in the East Midlands. It has an enviable reputation for both financial and children work focusing on a friendly and sensitive approach underpinned by a strong team ethic. The team includes four members of the Children Law Accreditation Scheme (Children Panel) including the firm’s managing partner, Ann-Marie Bowman. Her team deals with complex caseloads including High Court matters and frequently receives instructions from children’s guardians to represent children within proceedings. The head of the department is Paul Cobb who is a qualified collaborative lawyer and routinely deals with cases involving assets of over £1m.

The private client department, led by Jayne Smith, is the largest in the county and consists of a team of solicitors based across all eight of the firm’s offices to ensure that clients have the convenience of being seen at a local office where they receive a high level of personal service. The department makes over 2000 wills per year and administered over 400 estates last year. Four of the solicitors in the department are STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) members, and three are affiliate members. One of the partners in the department, Jeremy Allen, is clerk to the trustees of two alms houses charities.

The litigation team is instructed to deal with a wide range of commercial disputes. Areas of speciality include minority shareholder claims, joint venture partner fallouts and emergency injunctions. Head of department Richard Hammond is an accredited mediator. The team also has specialist capabilities in real estate litigation and is also instructed in connection with debt recovery, property, rent or mortgage repossession matters. The team has a member of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management and an accredited member of the League International for Creditors.

Tom Redgate is the head of the commercial property team and deals with a wide range of commercial property matters for example acting in multi-party collaboration agreements in respect of the development and disposal of a large site in Nottinghamshire, acting on a setting up of a long-term lease for East Midlands Reserve Forces and Cadet Association and the granting of leases for a variety of premises for a client with significant city-centre property portfolio.

The firm also has one of the largest and most capable residential conveyancing teams in the East Midlands led by Valerie Wilkinson.

The transport team has a longstanding national and international reputation and offers a dedicated transport/regulatory team that deals with road transport law on a daily basis. The team is led by Anton Balkitis and includes the firm’s first in-house counsel Olivia Maginn. The team receives substantial publicity across media, embracing social media and weekly blogs in addition to interviews for radio and TV and featuring heavily in trade publications.

The personal injury department is led by Elisabeth Halls and deals with a wide range of claims including children’s accidents, beauty treatments gone wrong, sports injuries, holiday accidents, defective products, accidents at work and slips and falls.

Other offices: Arnold, Beeston, Burton Joyce, Long Eaton, Mapperley, West Bridgford and Wollaton