Debenhams Ottaway > St Albans, England > Firm Profile

‘A really strong team based in St Albans who offer great value and high quality advice on a broad spectrum of cases.’

‘Helen Young is always on top of her cases and gives very realistic and settlement-focused advice to her clients.’

‘Natalie Lester and Helen Clyne both do sterling work on some difficult and demanding cases.’

‘I think that the extremely high level of service combined with reasonable rates and ethical approach to billing makes the firm stand out from most other firms. It is hard to find people who work as hard, deploy so much experience and have such a good knowledge of the law and tactics for the fees that they charge.’

‘Helen Young has to be one of the hardest working solicitors I have ever encountered. She has a no-nonsense approach to cases and has seemingly-effortless good judgment. Her clients soon come to trust her implicitly, and rightly so, she always fights hard for her clients whilst giving realistic advice that allows them to choose a path in keeping with their own formulation of risk. She strips emotion out of decision making and helps clients understand decisions from a strategic and pragmatic viewpoint.’

‘Debenhams Ottaway have a great team of family lawyers led by the excellent Helen Young. Great team approach to working too.’

‘Helen Young leads the family team and sets a great example to those in her department with her hard work ethic and approachable style. She’s very popular with her clients and fellow professionals. I enjoy working alongside her.’

‘Professionalism!‘

‘Regional business but with a London-style focus on clients. Good adoption of technology and I have found the entire team to be very responsive and helpful.’

‘Highly knowledgeable. Very thorough and open minded to clients changing of their minds. Very conscious of providing value for money especially by cross referring within the wider team to ensure clients get all their ducks in a row. Empathetic and good listeners.’

‘This is a very approachable team. Meetings often have the tone of discussions amongst trusted friends.’

‘Claire Sharp and Andrew Spearman both exhibit great knowledge, instilling great client confidence.’

‘A very efficient and well run team. Very responsive, client focused and professional’

‘Susan Glenholme has a great ability to put the client at ease, offer a friendly approach, knowledgeable and cares enough to go the extra mile.’

‘The private client team at Debenhams Ottaway is exceptional. I have known Susan Glenholme for 20 years; she has always provided fantastic service and advice to my clients and has built a great team around her, allowing the firm to grow and yet still maintain her high standards.’

‘As the head of the private client team and now managing partner, Susan Glenholme has built an exceptional team around her. In particular, I have been very impressed with Rachel Hyndman and Barry Griffin, who provide excellent service, high quality advice and value for money for my clients.’

‘Louise Attrup gives clear and pragmatic advice. She always outlines all the risks and benefits to enable effective decisions to be made.’

‘Debenhams Ottaway took the time to fully understand our business and build relationship which is now evident in the support and quality of service we receive.’

‘We rely on them for our litigation matters and we remain satisfied on outcomes of claims and the overall tactical approach in dealing with them together with flexibility on billing.’

‘Michael Kerrigan in particular always takes the time to make verbal contact to fully explain the movement on claims and discuss legal points where directions are required. He adopts a clear and easy approach to explain legal implications. This provides an opportunity to fully assess the commerciality element for us as a corporate business.’

‘This team has been in place for a long period of time, which means you are dealing with experienced and knowledgeable individuals. We refer conflict work to this team as we know they are like minded and provide excellent client care.’

‘We refer all of our conflict work to Michael Kerrigan. The feedback from contacts who we refer is always positive and they like his style and empathetic approach.’

‘Debenhams Ottaway are a local firm who support our charity with discounted rates, and a prompt and efficient service’

‘The staff take time to understand our needs and respond within the required timescales in a patient, detailed and comprehensive manner’

‘We have worked with Neil Mercer for a number of years. He has always acted in a very professional, helpful and friendly way. He has excellent knowledge and when required will pass any matters he is not familiar with on to another solicitor.’

‘The practice are friendly and helpful, speak in plain language, always aware of the needs of their clients. They are extremely reliable and exude trust. The quality of advice they give is outstanding, always proportionate and relevant.’

‘Neil Mercer manages a team dealing with property law matters with charitable ecclesiastical aspects.’

‘Neil Mercer is hardworking and responsive, and has specialist knowledge of charitable ecclesiastical aspects of property law matters, including trusts aspects relevant to those matters. Neil manages a very large portfolio of charitable property matters including sales, purchases, leases, development agreements and other property matters.’

‘Excellent communication, and in making clients aware of risk. Willingness to work pro bono or to defer invoicing when working with charities.’

‘Solicitors from Debenhams Ottaway have represented and guided us as a charity for over twenty years. Although we are only a small charity, they have been efficient and knowledgable and maintained an interest in our charity throughout this time.’

‘Nothing is too much trouble and Ruth Boulton always makes herself available 24/7. It makes the whole process enjoyable and the attention to detail is spot on.’

‘Not only are the team competent but they have a refreshing attitude of getting on with transactions and getting them done which in my experience is quite rare!’

‘Ruth Boulton has an ownership of cases which is fairly unique. Neil Mercer and Rosie Penny are both highly capable and amongst a very small handful of solicitors that we recommend to clients.’

‘Debenham Ottaway have all the key competencies required to form a productive and engaged team and service. They demonstrate great skills and knowledge and can unite around a goal and look to build strong relationships. They show excellent team building skills that are very important as the key competencies used to form productive and engaged teams and service. They unite with their clients around a common goal and kindle strong relationships. Always excellent response times, industry knowledge, appropriateness of advice, strength-in-depth of team, and value for money are what makes this practice unique.’

‘Excellent skills and abilities are demonstrated at all times. The commitment and dedication to achieving the goal and objection is outstanding. Neil Mercer is a fantastic example of the great staff working at Debenhams Ottaway.’

‘The practice has given our clients a high level of service on a consistent basis. Our clients have always been treated well and given excellent advice by the firms solicitors.’

‘I have recommended Neil Mercer to my clients for many years as he always gives an excellent level of service.’

‘It is a multi-disciplinary practice covering a wide range of property areas. They provide a central London service for lower rates than their London competitors.’

‘I have been introduced to 3 partners at this firm who specialise in different fields. All display a clear grasp of their roles and are able to deliver a client experience that I have not come across in other law firms. Professional, knowledgeable and likeable. The latter is absolutely key when it comes to retention of our business with them.’

‘James has been a key contact for our firm for years and always delivers in a fast and efficient manner. He also provides solid advice on the needs of our firm. In my 23 years of running a business which has a heavy emphasis on client service and delivering successful outcomes, he is one of the best lawyers I have come across.’

‘Debenhams Ottaway are all incredibly helpful and responsive in their approach. You know you can rely on them to give you professional and friendly advice.’

‘James Brawn is my stand-out individual at Debenhams Ottaway. I have worked with him for years and had prompt, courteous and solid advice. He is an excellent partner and very pragmatic and realistic in his approach to business.’

‘As a fellow lawyer it can sometimes be a challenge when working with opposing teams, I’m pleased to say that is never the case with Debenhams Ottaway – they are a very good team – a very strong corporate and commercial offering with a thorough grasp of the law while offering pragmatic commercialism which helps clients to achieve their goals.’

‘They are personable, approachable and always willing to listen.’

‘Their advice is clear, concise, and to the point.’

‘Andrew Yates has an excellent knowledge of corporate law and contract law. Always pragmatic.’

‘Progressive and highly professional regional litigation outfit.’

‘Would recommend Juliet Schalker – very experienced, and a pleasure to work with.’

‘Juliet Schalker is a powerhouse. Her team covers the full range of dispute resolution work and does so to an extremely high standard.’

‘Juliet has a sharp mind but is very client focused and also empathetic. She goes the extra mile.’

‘The dispute resolution team is well regarded in the insolvency sector. Juliet Schalker is well regarded by her peers and clients as being technically astute, accessible, knowledgeable and personable. My view is that Debenhams Ottaway’s insolvency team are exposed to more complex, higher value disputes, than you would normally expect of firms in this category. I frequently refer work to the firm where my firm are conflicted and have had only positive feedback.’

‘Juliet is extremely responsive, knowledgeable and technically and commercially astute. She has a great understanding of the industry and clients love her. We have a number of mutual clients who also hold her in high regard.’

‘Strong female presence with some great role models.’

‘Juliet Schalker is very personable and exceptional with industry knowledge. She has a great ability to share her network and assist business clients outside of casework.’

‘Alexander Neale heads up an extremely competent team focusing on insolvency and restructuring from the debt recovery end to large scale corporate restructuring.’

‘Alexander Neale is technically brilliant, charming and easy to deal with which means that as an opposing solicitor there is no game playing or unnecessary correspondence, just hard facts and options, which is very refreshing.’

‘I have instructed Debenhams Ottaway on many cases and they have never failed to deliver anything less than excellence. A practical, commercial and user friendly approach combined with expertise in the law, practice and procedure of contentious insolvency. ‘

‘I work with the commercial dispute resolution and insolvency teams. They are all hard-working, commercial and pragmatic lawyers who go the extra mile for clients. The firm has a good collegiate culture and a modern settlement-focused approach to litigation.’

‘Juliet Schalker is a brilliant leader of the dispute resolution team. She is super smart, client-focused and very commercial. She runs a happy, productive team.’

‘Alex Neale is a fantastic lawyer. Great to work with and always puts in the extra effort for clients. He is very capable and conscientious and is excellent at settling disputes.’

‘It offers a Central London service but at a better rate. The experience and depth of knowledge of the team is tiptop!’

‘Michael Henry’s knowledge base is vast. He combines that knowledge with an an excellent bedside manner with lay clients.’

‘The most important strength from everyone I have dealt with is a calm reassurance that everything will be fine, that, whatever the mess, there will be a solution. Excellent subject knowledge and an ability to answer questions that the client didn’t even know they needed an answer to makes the client feel secure and cared for. Excellent interpersonal skills from all at the company.’

‘The advice received was absolutely on point, no time was wasted waffling around the subject. The solicitor observed the time set for appointment and used it efficiently. The support staff were efficient and also on point.’

‘Debenhams Ottaway were excellent in my particular matter on which I consulted them, certainly in comparison with the department of the solicitors dealing with the other side of the dispute.’

‘I dealt with Michael Henry whose handling of a difficult situation, as far as my fellow executors were concerned, was exemplary. He was honest and straightforward in his advice which was delivered in layman’s language.’

‘Michael Henry has great attention to detail.’