Page 5 - Newcastle News Sep 2017

Boost for commercial property team at Mincoffs
Newcastle Law Firm Mincoffs has appointed Associate Solicitor Rebecca Dawson to its Commercial Property team.
Rebecca graduated from Northumbria University with a BSc (Hons) in Building Management and went on to complete her RICS exams in building surveying. She qualified as a solicitor in 2003 and spent 4 years in a commercial property team before moving to an in-house legal role for a North East developer. She then spent 2 years in the commercial property team at another North East firm before joining Mincoffs in July. Rebecca has extensive experience of dealing with all types of commercial property transactions but her particular interest is in development and regeneration, planning and construction.
Ryan Bannon, Partner and Head of
Commercial Property at Mincoffs
said ‘Rebecca is an excellent property landscape both regionally addition to the Commercial and nationally.’
Property Team at what is an
exciting time in the commercial
Scott Cable joins Swinburne Maddison
Swinburne Maddison has appointed Scott Cable to its litigation team Scott Cable, who is a member of the Property Litigation Association, brings with him eight years of experience gained at one of Newcastle’s major law firms. He will be working alongside partners Jonathan Moreland and David Low.
Partner Jonathan Moreland said: “We are at an exciting stage in our development, able to combine a high quality working environment with varied and challenging work. Scott adds real strength and depth to our firm and is a superb addition to the department.”
Local News
Legal Aid Award for Mary Shaw
Mary Shaw has been recognised as Family Lawyer of the Year at the 15th ‘Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year’ (LALY) awards. She was given particular credit for her Mediation work.
Mary said “It is a huge honour to be recognised in this way for my mediation work and it was simply lovely to win an award in the month that I marked my 30 years with David Gray. Although I miss my litigating friends at court, I really enjoy working in different ways with them to best help their clients. Being a mediator requires a collaborative approach as most of my mediation clients seek legal support too and I always encourage this.”
After reading law at Durham University, Mary trained in London and worked there for 3 years as a family solicitor. She then moved to Newcastle in 1987 to take up a post at David Gray as head of what was then a very small, newly formed family department – comprising Mary and Clare Routledge who was about to go on maternity leave.
Over the next 20 years Mary built the department both in size (to 45) and reputation so that it is now known and highly regarded, winning the Northern Law Awards in 2015 and the national Family Law Awards in 2016. Mary is accredited by Resolution as a specialist lawyer in the areas of Advanced Financial Provision, Private Children Law and Domestic Abuse; she has been a member of the Children Panel since 1993.
More recently, Mary recognised that clients who are splitting up were increasingly looking for non- court options. To meet this need, Mary trained as a collaborative family lawyer; in 2007 she was involved in the first collaborative
family case in the North East.
Mary then trained as a family mediator and is now an accredited mediator with qualifications both to directly consult with children and to supervise other mediators. The mediation team at David Gray has now grown to three with Mary receiving referrals involving complex children matters and high net worth divorces.
Although the competition at the LALY awards was stiff, the team at David Gray is delighted Mary has been recognised for her dedication, enthusiasm and genuine desire to ‘do things differently.
Legal Aid Practitioners Group Director Carol Storer said: "It is such a privilege to be able to celebrate the ground breaking, life changing work of access to justice lawyers. The calibre of this year's nominations was staggeringly high, and a real reflection of the expertise, grit and compassion which characterises the legal aid sector."
Mary can be contacted at Family.mediation@davidgray.co.uk or directly at mary.shaw@davidgray.co.uk