Four members of the team at Hay & Kilner Law Firm are moving up the career ladder after earning promotions with the Newcastle-headquartered practice.
Sara Malik, Sophie Moss and Ben Jackson, who work in the firm’s dispute resolution, clinical negligence and corporate & commercial teams respectively, have all been promoted to associate solicitor roles, while Kerry Kelso has moved into a senior associate position in the practice’s family law department.
Kerry joined Hay & Kilner as a trainee, qualifying as a solicitor in 2004, and has worked in its specialist family law team ever since.
Based at Hay & Kilner’s Wallsend office, she is a member of both the Law Society Children’s Panel and Resolution, the UK association of specialist family lawyers, and is recommended in legal industry bible, the Legal 500.
After studying at Durham University and York Law School, Ben Jackson also joined Hay & Kilner in 2015 as a trainee and qualified as a solicitor two years later.
He is part of Hay & Kilner’s specialist corporate & commercial law team, and works on a wide range of transactional and commercial matters including corporate finance raising, acquisitions, disposals and management buy-outs. He is also a committee member of the Newcastle Young Professionals Forum.
Sara Malik qualified as a solicitor in 2017 and acts for a number of national companies as well as SMEs operating mainly in the North East.
She advises clients on the strategic, evidential and procedural aspects of disputes and contractual matters and acts in a variety of disputes, including contractual claims, intellectual property disputes, contentious trusts & probate and property-related disputes
Sophie Moss qualified as a solicitor in 2016, a year after joining Hay & Kilner, and works across a wide range of clinical and dental negligence cases
She is a member of both the North East Women Lawyers Division and the North East Medico-Legal Society, and is part of Hay & Kilner’s Corporate Social Responsibility committee.
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.
Jonathan Waters, managing partner at Hay & Kilner LLP, says: “Providing a clear career path for ambitious, talented lawyers is a key part of attracting and retaining high-quality staff, and many of our current partners have taken this route up through the ranks to become part of the firm’s senior team.
“The quality of service that Kerry, Sara, Sophie and Ben provide to their clients and their contributions to the firm’s success mean they all thoroughly deserve their promotions, and we’re looking forward to seeing their continuing development in their new roles.”