A trainee at Hall Brown Family Law has been elected as President of the body representing junior lawyers in Sheffield.
Megan Woodcock was chosen to serve a 12-month term by committee members of the city’s Junior Lawyers Division.
Sheffield born and bred, she joined Hall Brown in 2023 as a Paralegal and took up a training contract with the firm in September last year.
Megan described how she aimed to improve collaboration between other similar organisations across the north during her JLD tenure.
“Being a young lawyer myself, it is a privilege to be asked to lead initiatives to help my peers not only establish careers of their own but to thrive in them.
“In addition to our professional development work, we try to make young lawyers comfortable in networking with each other as well as individuals in different professions – something which can provide long-term benefits.
“I came into law without any family connections to the industry and, together with my JLD colleagues, am very much aware of the importance of making it a more accessible profession, regardless of background.
“I am also aware that whereas some JLDs in the South East have joined forces on a regional basis to further capitalise on the advantages which they represent for young lawyers, there is no collaboration of that sort in the North.
“That is something which I want to address in order to enable the more inexperienced members of the legal profession to prosper by being more connected and learning from each other’s experiences.”
Megan’s election as Sheffield JLD President comes two years after she became one of 11 members of the body’s ruling committee, with specific responsibility for representing practices which have eight trainees or fewer.
The city’s JLD is part of a national network which was created by the Law Society in 2008 in partnership with the Trainee Solicitors’ Group and the Young Solicitors’ Group.
As a result, local groups in some areas, such as Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool opted to rebrand as JLDs, whilst those in other places, like Manchester, chose to retain their historic names.
Irrespective of location or title, the network is designed to “support, connect and empower junior lawyers”.
Megan explained that the Sheffield structure also draws members from Derbyshire and boasts impressive links with bodies representing the junior intake of other professions, such as financial services.
Her selection is another fillip for Hall Brown, which set up premises in Sheffield in April 2020.
It has since become the only family law practice in the South Yorkshire region to be ranked in the top tier in two of the country’s leading legal rankings, Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.
Partner and head of the Sheffield office, Alison Fernandes, was included in both directories as a Leading Partner, while consultants Martin Loxley and Zoe Round featured in Legal 500’s Hall of Fame. Zoe was also named as one of Chambers and Partners’ Senior Statespeople.
Earlier this year, Hall Brown also completed yet another clean sweep in the most prestigious domestic and international tables, adding top billing in Doyle’s Guide to prominent shows in Legal 500, Chambers and Partners, eprivateclient and the Times’ own rankings.
In May, the firm was named one of the UK’s Best Places to Work for the third year in a row, recognised as one of the 10 very best medium-sized companies in the annual listing compiled by the Sunday Times.
