Two young North East lawyers have been appointed as solicitors by regional law firm Hay & Kilner after successfully completing a two-year training programme.
Abby Dorani and Tom Bridge have both undertaken four blocks of six months in different departments within the Newcastle-headquartered firm, which helped them gain a range of practical legal experience and identify their particular strengths and areas of interest.
After completing two vacation placements with Hay & Kilner during her French & Spanish degree at Edinburgh University and then taking her Graduate Diploma in Law, Abby joined the firm in 2016 as a paralegal in its residential property unit. She then passed her Legal Practice Course and began her training contract in the following year.
Abby worked in the firm’s commercial property, clinical negligence and corporate departments during her training before now settling on joining the corporate team, where she assists and advises clients on a range of matters including business sales & acquisitions, shareholder matters, contract reviews and data protection.
Tom graduated from Newcastle University in 2015 with a first in English Language and returned to the North East two years later after completing his Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course qualifications.
He undertook training seats with Hay & Kilner’s private client, family, clinical negligence and commercial property teams before taking a solicitor role in the private client team, with a particular specialism in wills, trusts and tax planning.
Abby Dorani says: “Working across different departments helped me decide which areas of law most interested me, and I found that the transactional work that the corporate team carries out across a range of different sectors was what suited me best.
“As well as helping businesses to progress, you also get to see the positive impact that the team’s work has on the people that set up and run these firms, and seeing how our work helps these individuals achieve their personal objectives adds an extra dimension to what we do.
“Hay & Kilner has always been a very friendly firm to be part of and it gives its trainees and young solicitors the chance to get involved with high quality projects right from the off, enabling us to learn through working closely with experienced colleagues along the way.”
Jonathan Waters, managing partner at Hay & Kilner, adds: “Abby and Tom have both shown themselves to be highly-capable practitioners and have more than justified the faith we showed in choosing them for our training scheme.
“As well as developing their practical legal knowledge as part of our highly-qualified teams, they have also been able to experience the professional and client service standards that we adhere to as a firm, which will hold them in good stead as they develop their careers with us.”
Established in 1946, Hay & Kilner is one of North East England’s leading independent law firms and provides a full range of legal services to businesses and individuals from both within and outside the region.