New leadership at law firm to build on success

Key leadership changes at Harrison Clark Rickerbys’ Cheltenham office will build on the firm’s success, with a new head of office and a change at the top of the corporate team which recently took top spot in rankings for the number of deals in the first half of the year.

Kristine Scott, who has led the firm’s education team to national prominence, winning awards for their expertise especially in the independent and academies sectors, is the new head of the Cheltenham office. She takes over from Rich Wilkey, who adds head of the firm’s London corporate team to his remit whilst remaining in situ to support the new heads in leadership in Cheltenham.

Kristine, who has been described by leading legal directories as ‘completely on top of her game and respected across the education sector’ and ‘quite simply superb’, has been with the firm in Cheltenham for more than 20 years and has a wealth of connections across the county.

She said: “I am looking forward to building further on our success across the office’s offering in corporate, business services and private client in addition to the education team, maintaining a strong focus on developing new skillsets to meet changing needs across the region. Our success is built on existing achievements and exceeding clients’ expectations; I hope to build and encourage new initiatives as we adapt to technological advances and a changing business environment. We continued to do that through the pandemic and we’ll be alongside clients in recovery and renewal as well.”

Rich Wilkey said, “Kristine has consistently demonstrated her strategic vision and has played an invaluable role in growing our presence in Cheltenham as well as expanding our education sector expertise UK-wide.”

A key part of the office’s success has been its corporate team, now headed by Tim Ward, who moved to the firm two years ago and has played an important role in its continued success; the team was the most active legal advisor in the South West for the first six months of 2020, coming first in Experian’s South West regional M&A rankings. The team has had one of its deals shortlisted in major deal-making awards this year and is shortlisted as corporate law firm of the year.

Meeting client demand for mergers and acquisitions, in spite of Covid-19, meant HCR moved ahead of many much larger firms, helping to keep business moving and Tim advised on several of the most significant deals.

He said: “This has been a tough period for many of our clients and our focus has been on helping them to keep business moving so that they emerge in the best position possible. We have needed to be flexible and agile in our approach, and the team’s readiness to do whatever it takes for the client is evident in these figures.”

Experian ranks deals by volume and by value – all deals included are worth £500,000 or more. You can see the full report here.