Hall Brown Backs ‘Home-Grown’ Talent With Trio Of Training Contracts 

Published on 27 September, 2022 | Back to News/Press

Hall Brown Family Law has made another commitment to future success with the awarding of training contracts to three of its “home-grown” talents.

Sky Langwieser, Rachel Cocker and Savannah Davies have all been rewarded for impressing since joining the award-winning firm as paralegals.

Partner Claire Reid explained that the move was in keeping with Hall Brown’s intention of investing in and developing lawyers capable of building upon its reputation.

“We are extremely happy that Sky, Rachel and Savannah have chosen to take up our offer of training contracts.

“All three have made tremendous progress since joining us and we are confident that they will realise their full potential.

“In addition to being able to attract some of the very best experienced family lawyers around, we have been conscious of the importance of bringing individuals through the ranks in-house.

“Our trainees become accustomed to the exceptionally high quality of the work undertaken by fee-earners and administrative staff.

“We have found that they really do benefit from the quality of training which we offer, acquiring the skills which are so important as well as receiving all the supervision, encouragement or support which they need to grow.”

Ms Langwieser has been with Hall Brown as a paralegal since April 2018, supporting lawyers handling casework at all four of the firm’s offices – in Manchester, London, Leeds and Sheffield.

During the term of her training contract, she will continue to work out of Hall Brown’s Manchester head office, while Ms Cocker – who was recruited only weeks before the start of the pandemic – will be based in Sheffield and Manchester.

Ms Davies is the most recent paralegal appointment to benefit in the latest round of training contracts, having joined Hall Brown’s London office in October last year.

The awarding of the contracts follows the firm’s strengthening of its ranks earlier this month.

Madelaine Hailey and Rachel Darrell moved from two of Hall Brown’s rivals to become Senior Associate and Associate respectively, while Rebekah Fender and Eleanor Scott were both added to the ranks of Hall Brown’s paralegals.

Only weeks before, Zoe Round added the benefit of a career spanning 30 years to Hall Brown’s Sheffield office, having previously headed up Irwin Mitchell’s family department in the city.

Hall Brown now employs a total of 56 people, 43 of whom are fee earners. In the last full financial year, the firm saw its turnover increase from £4.1 million to £5.4 million.

Mrs Reid outlined that the key to Hall Brown’s development lay in a combination of “recruitment and retention”.

In addition to a series of appointments, the individuals who had taken up its first training contracts – Rebekah King, Jodi Ford and Matthew Hodgson – had all remained with the firm after completing the two-year process.

Another member of staff, Emma Whitehead, is in the final year of her training contract, having initially spent time with Hall Brown on work experience while at school.

“That our trainees choose to remain with us is testament to the culture which we have cultivated and thanks to the people we have been fortunate to recruit.

“They know that it would be extremely difficult to find a firm which is as progressive and simply as interesting to work at as Hall Brown.

“Those reasons are exactly the same as those voiced by the men and women who join from other firms and why we are so excited about what the future holds”.