About Nowell Meller Solicitors Limited

A Local Service    

Nowell Meller Solicitors began serving Stafford and Staffordshire in 1956 as a partnership, forging strong links with the local community and business world. In the last five years the firm has grown steadily at between 15% and 20% per year in turnover as well as staff numbers. The practice moved to its current premises in March 2001 and in November 2005 it incorporated as Nowell Meller Solicitors Limited (Reg. in England and Wales No. 5536577), the new company taking over the established business of the legal partnership of Nowell Meller, formerly Nowell Meller & Nowell.

In November 2007, the company mergerd with the Burslem-based practice of Arthur Boulton & Son Solicitors, established in 1975 and the Burslem office continues to trade as Arthur Boulton Solicitors.

This Staffordshire-based company is known particularly for its family law practice in public and private law, as well as mediation, trading under the name The Mediation Centre, and achieving a national reputation. The company is also developing a particular focus on private client work, handling residential conveyancing, wills, trusta and the administration of estates. In addition, it provides commercial property services for business clients.

We aim to provide a caring service that meets the real needs of our clients in our chosen areas of work and believe that this customer focus is a major strength differentiating us from a number of our competitors and influencing the manner in which we conduct our work. We believe that we have achieved a balance between the technical skill and expertise of our specialist lawyers and a caring service providing value for money. We have a reputation for being forward-thinking and innovative and make good use of information technology. We are widely regarded as an employer of choice.

A Quality Service
We are committed to continued development and improvement in our services. We have been awarded recognition as an Investor in People and which recognises the importance that we place on staff development and training. We are now one of the top 5% or so of law practices having been awarded the Law Society's Lexcel Quality Mark which reconises the excellent service that we provide to our clients. In addition, we hold the Specialist Quality Mark awarded by the Legal Services Commission recognising our role within the Community Legal Service. Our Family Law Service is recommended by The Legal 500. This reflects our commitment towards continuing improvement in all aspects of our work.

You can therefore rest assured that our quality systems and levels of service are regularly audited by a number of independant external bodies and that we continue to meet the high standards that they and we require.

We have also been operating a comprehensive client feed-back questionnaire since 1997 and have made a number of changes in our systems and procedures as a result of feed-back from our clients. We are keen to receive suggestions for ways in which we might improve our service.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and you can access our professional rules at www.sra.org.uk/code-of-conduct.page

A Specialist Service
If you instruct us, your case will be handled by one or more members of a qualified team of specialist lawyers and support staff under the supervision of a designated senior lawyer in accordance with our documented quality and client management procedures.

Many of our staff are members of specialist panels established by the Law Society and other professional bodies with considerable experience in their chosen work areas.  

The Mediation Centre is known nationally as one of the most successful in the family arena and Neil Robinson, the centre's director, has published a number of articles in Family Law Journal. The Mediation Centre organises events and training on a regional and national level and has seen the volume of its work increase by over 50% in the last 12 months. Steve Kirwan is one of the few Collaborative Family Lawyers in Staffordshire adding to the growing number of Alternative Dispute Resolution solutions offered by the practice.

In January 2008, the practice was joined by new Director Jane Matthewman, formerly Partner and Head of Private Client Services at Beswicks Solicitors in Stoke on Trent. Along with a number of members of her existing team, Jane is to lead the further development of the private client side of the practice.

Types of Work Undertaken
The Family Law Service deals with all aspects of divorce and separation, matters relating to children including residence, contact and child-care, cohabitation and civil partnership issues, financial issues, adoption, care proceedings and the representation of children in private law proceedings, pre-nuptial and pre-partnership agreements, domestic violence and emergency matters. The Mediation Centre provides a suitable location for the resolution of all types of family dispute with the help of a neutral third party.

All areas of residential property work are handled by our dedicated property team, including freehold/ leasehold sales (inclusing auction sales), purchases, remortgages, transfers of equity, shared ownership arrangements, declarations of trust, deeds of gift and land exchanges. The team serves a wide range of clients including private individuals, property developers, holiday homeowners, farming families, charities and companies. The team is able to deliver the full range of services including Home Information Packs and is moving towards e-conveyancing. Property work for business clients extends to the sale and purchase of business premises including offices, shops and factories as well as leasehold property. Wills, probate and the administration of estates is dealt with as are Lasting Powers of Attorney. The practice has developed a specialism in Court of Protection and Receivership work on behalf of patients who are unable to manage their own affairs.

Litigation services include all types of compensation claims, such as personal injury, industrial accidents and road traffic accidents, as well as other civil claims such as contract and partnership disputes, inheritance claims and disputes affecting land including neighbour disputes. Mental Health Tribunal representation is also a specialism.

We are a Six-Principal practice:

John Langford (Director) - Property and Business matters, Wills Probate and Trusts (Solicitor, 1974)

Paul Sherratt (Director) - Family Law, Mediation (Solicitor, 1975)

Neil Robinson (Director) - Mediation, Child Care and Family Law (Solicitor, 1980)

Steve Kirwan (Managing Director) - Family Law, Collaborative Law (Solicitor, 1988)

Jane Matthewman (Director) - Private Client (Solicitor, 1992)

Andrew Hall (Director) - Family Law (Solicitor, 1994)

To see a Profile of Directors and other Caseworkers, click here

Our other Principal Caseworkers are:

Claire Campbell - Family (Solicitor, 1977)

Nicholas Fitzmaurice - Litigation (Solicitor, 1983)

Jane Buckley - Family (Solicitor, 1984)

Robina Boydon - Family (Solicitor, 1989)

Louise Salmon - Mental Health (Solicitor, 1990)

Julie Roberts - Family (Solicitor, 1995)

Debby Hackney - Property (Solicitor, 2000)

Gill Squire - Property (Solicitor, 2001)

Emma Kirkwood - Wills & Probate (Solicitor, 2001)

Jo Begg - Wills & Probate (Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives)

Julie Perry - Wills & Probate (Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives)

Pauline McIntyre - Family (Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives)

Nigel Dodd - Family (Clerk)

Sarah Chadwick - Family (Clerk)

Rachel East - Family (Paralegal)

Caroline Evans - Chartered Tax Advisor

Carole Wright - Conveyancing Assistant

Marion Denning - Conveyancing Assistant

Natalie Poole - Wills & Probate (Clerk)

Ali Collier - Family (Clerk)

To see a Profile of Directors and other Caseworkers, click here

To see our recruitment opportunites, click here