The Family team at Midlands’ law firm Challinors, which is placed in the highest Top Tier ranking in the latest edition of the independent Legal 500 Directory, has hired specialist family lawyers Richard Gray and Venetia Chatzimichali.
The latest hires bring the total family team resource to thirty-three fee earners, and grows the firm’s representation on the Law Society Children’s Panel to six.
Based in Challinors’ Birmingham city centre office, Richard Gray joins the firm from the Northampton office of Adams Moore Solicitors, where he was Lead Family Solicitor for more than two years, specialising in private and publicly funded family and children matters. He qualified as a solicitor in 2000 and is an Accredited Member of the Law Society’s Children Law and Family Law Panels.
Venetia Chatzimichali joins Challinors’ West Bromwich office from Kale & Co Solicitors in Wolverhampton, where she was a family lawyer for over two years, managing a publicly and privately funded case load of children, matrimonial and domestic violence matters. She is currently studying towards a PhD in Law in Financial Services Law.
“We handle all manner of family legal issues, from complex child care work to representing high net worth clients,” explains the firm’s Partner Fiona O’Sullivan, Head of the Family Law team, which includes the dedicated Child Care team.
“As instructions continue to rise in both our Birmingham and West Bromwich offices in the West Midlands, we needed to expand our dedicated team, and both Richard and Venetia represent experienced and competent additions to our resource for private clients.”
Challinors’ Associate in the Child Care Team, Claire Butterfield was appointed to the LSC Children Law Panel earlier this year. Challinors now has six of its team appointed to the Panel, including its latest hire Richard Gray, together with Consultants Angela Houston and John Chapple, Solicitor Fiona Bowen, and Associate in the East Midlands, Pramila Meghani.
Challinors Family and Child Care teams both scored highly in the latest edition of the Legal 500, which awarded the Family team the highest, First Tier ranking for the third consecutive year. The team is recognised for its high level of service which ‘exceeds expectations’, and team head Fiona O’Sullivan, is recognised for her ‘personable, prompt and efficient’ attributes and her expertise in the pension’s aspects of financial settlements.
Challinors has offices in the West Midlands in Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Halesowen and Nottingham in the East Midlands. It has17 partners and over 100 fee earners, and is ranked as one of the top legal firms in the West Midlands. The firm’s Crime and Family Law teams received top tier, Band 1 ranking in the 2010 and 2011 editions of the Legal 500 Directory and is ranked in Band 2 of the Chambers UK Directory. The firm is Number 1 in the Chambers UK Directory in Crime and Clinical Negligence categories.
