Law and Loyalty
CooperBurnett’s Head of Residential Property, Jennifer Irving, tells Eileen Leahy how loyalty, expertise and people-first values continue to shape her team’s success
CooperBurnett LLP certainly knows how to retain its staff. The successful law firm’s
co-leaders Victoria Sampson and Joseph Oates have each accumulated over a quarter of a century of service there, while some of its key fee earners, partners and support staff have also been with the business for decades.
The firm’s Head of Residential Property, Jennifer Irving, joined the leading local law firm 22 years ago – however her professional history with CooperBurnett predates that. But more about that later…
Over her time with the firm Jennifer admits that she has seen some seismic changes.
“When I started we had no website, just a couple of email addresses and pretty much all correspondence was done by post,” she explains as we sit down to chat at CooperBurnett’s Napier House headquarters, located on Mount Ephraim Road in the heart of Tunbridge Wells.
The firm, which celebrates its 45th anniversary next year and is ranked in the Legal 500 and Chambers, is known for its highly personable approach to doing business with both private and corporate clients and boasts a number of specialist services.
In addition to its Residential Property division, the firm has experts in Commercial Property & Development, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Tax Planning, Corporate & Commercial, Family & Matrimonial, Wills, Probates & Trusts. In fact, there is very little that CooperBurnett doesn’t offer its wealth of loyal clients.
But back to Jennifer. I am here to talk to her about the ways in which she has grown the Residential Property team into the success story it is after she took over the reins in 2017. Not only has Jennifer expanded her team, she has also done the same with the number of clients the department has. And that’s no mean feat given there was a global pandemic to deal with during her early tenure.
Jennifer is reluctant to take all the praise: “I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this success without my colleagues,” she says as we begin our interview in the CooperBurnett boardroom.
Before we get into what makes CooperBurnett’s Residential Property team so well-regarded, Jennifer starts by telling me about how she got to where she is now. And it’s quite the story…
“I came to work for CooperBurnett as a legal secretary when I was 17. I left some years later to start a family and, after I had my third child, I took on a conveyancing role, with my own case load, at another law firm.”
At that particular time Jennifer bumped into her former boss, Jonathan Smithers, at a Law Society event.
“He was one of the Senior Partners at CooperBurnett and asked me to return to the firm in order to work for him. He was heavily involved in the Law Society of England and Wales. He was Deputy Vice President, then Vice President before becoming the President and his time at Chancery Lane meant I needed to collaborate very closely with him. He was working within the property division of the Law Society and was also part of the committee who set up the Conveyancing Quality Scheme.
“I worked with Jonathan reformatting property information forms and contractual conditions of sales and as he progressed towards becoming President of the Law Society of England and Wales, his role within the firm became less hands on. Eventually when Jonathan did become President, he was based in London and that’s when I started to take on more and more responsibility.”
Jennifer credits Jonathan with teaching her so much about this particular area of law and cites him as a huge inspiration and a ‘really great role model’. His mentoring, support and confidence in Jennifer’s professional prowess is how she managed to take on fee earning work without coming via the traditional route.
In 2016 Jonathan decided he was going to retire from the firm and move to Australia. A year later, Jennifer was appointed Head of Residential Property, proving that hard work, on the job experience and natural talent can lead to great things.
Incidentally, the department was one of the first to be awarded the Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation by The Law Society when it was established in 2011.
In 2016 Victoria Sampson and Joseph Oates took over as co-leaders of CooperBurnett, overseeing its strategic management, and in 2018 they asked Jennifer to join their Management Board.
When I interviewed the pair last year, they told me that one of the first things they did was to dispense with the traditional hierarchy of a law firm.
In terms of Joseph and Victoria working alongside one another that meant recognising each other’s complementary talents and with Jennifer it was about recognising her ‘deep value to the firm’.
“We wanted to bring Jennifer into our Senior Management Team as an outward expression of the way we regard her,” Joseph told me.
“It was recognition of her value to the firm which is far more important than the fact she didn’t go to law school. What Jennifer has created in the Residential Property team is second to none.”
Joseph and Victoria added that they are committed to bringing more people like Jennifer into CooperBurnett.
“We want to show people how they can do it too. Respecting people over hierarchy is key for us.”
After working in the property and conveyancing sector for over 40 years Jennifer has certainly accrued hugely extensive experience in handling all aspects of residential conveyancing and, in turn, has created an extremely loyal client base and team.
Jennifer’s role sees her dealing with both freehold and leasehold properties and she advises everyone from first-time buyers to seasoned investors.
What does she believe gives her the ability to do such a good job?
“You have to be a people person and a problem solver and possess the ability to think outside the box to do this job,” she explains.
“I absolutely love what I do here. I have joked that I am going to retire but I am not. I would miss it too much – and I don’t feel ready.”
Jennifer says that juggling her day job at CooperBurnett alongside sitting on the Management Board is something that she very much enjoys.
“I like the variety. But I still love conveyancing too and very much enjoy the relationships we have with our clients – some of whom, like a lot of us, have been with CooperBurnett for years.”
She adds that the Management Board looks at all the things that managing a firm comprises of including strategy, operational leadership and of course people. And the latter is Jennifer’s particular area of responsibility.
“A firm of this size does have a large amount of people – some of whom have been for over 40 years,” smiles Jennifer. Currently there are 52 employees working at CooperBurnett including trainee solicitors, senior associates, equity partners and support staff.
“I work very closely with our Practice Manager Clare Kelly who joined the firm at the beginning of 2022. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without her. She is amazing, helping me when interviewing prospective candidates amongst other things.”
Jennifer admits that some aspects of her Management Board role can be fairly challenging but overall it is a rewarding one.
“We have such a lovely team here. However, as you can imagine, sometimes things don’t necessarily go to plan and so my job is to find solutions. Or to try and think of one before a situation becomes a problem.”
Currently Jennifer’s team totals 11 which includes both fee earners and support staff. That means that she has more time to accommodate the Management Board work.
“In 2017 the department comprised myself and two other fee earners plus a couple of support staff. And now there are seven fee earners in the department, including myself, plus four support staff.”
Jennifer adds that the pandemic five years ago served to present some positives.
“We realised we could work in a very different way. Pre-Covid you would never have imagined you could do this job remotely, but actually operating a hybrid way of working has made things more efficient and we are more productive.
“My team is phenomenal and I have to pay special tribute to our support staff. None of us could operate without them. Two of them have been here for decades. Hazel Thompson has been here for 40 years while Lorraine Constable has been with the firm for 29 years. Hazel started here when she was 15 as an office junior and progressed over the years. She has been my PA for a number of years – and to be honest there is not a lot she doesn’t know!”
Jennifer tells me that she is usually in the office every day but that her colleagues will work probably four days at home and one day at CooperBurnett’s HQ.
She says the growth of her department has been fairly organic: “We are slightly different to other firms as we are not target driven. We have a huge amount of work referred to us. That could be from existing clients or estate agents, but a lot of it comes through our team members too.
“When the pandemic came, we had Lisa Connolly and Glen Webb working here and they have now become partners in the firm. I used to pass them clients but they have now grown their own client base. Glen is our expert on country homes and estates. Lisa has just celebrated 10 years with Team CB and deals with all aspects of conveyancing, as well as being a member of our charity committee. Ayla Clissold, Senior Associate and Nicola Walsh, Associate, are also key members of our fee-earning team.”
Jennifer adds that when Partner Anna Dunn joined the firm a lot of her contacts followed her from her previous practice.
“That speaks volumes about the team members we have here. We are in a very, very fortunate position.”
Jennifer says that because her department works so closely together they are not in competition with one another.
“We are very much a team and I think that’s quite an important thing to stress. We would never fight one another for work or clients. If that happened, then that would change the whole dynamic of this department.”
This professional and personal cohesion is further reflected in the feedback Jennifer and her colleagues receive.
“We don’t ask clients for any kind of testimonial but people will naturally volunteer feedback. I always think that is incredible – especially if you have had a stressful house move! To actually take the time to email us or drop in with a card is so special. But I think ultimately it is because we treat our clients the way we would like to be treated. It really is all about people for us.”
And while we are on the subject of people, this moves nicely into CooperBurnett’s Three Ps ethos: ‘People, People and Profit’ – a mantra which Victoria and Joseph came up with during the pandemic.
“People told us at the time we couldn’t mention the word profit…but it’s about how we can profit from one another and how our community can profit from us. It’s another way of saying value,” Victoria explained to me last year.
This Three P plan coincided with the launch of the firm’s refreshed branding which was unveiled last July and something that Jennifer was an integral part of, working alongside BakerWilcox creative design and web agency Target Ink.
“Everyone is as important as each other, whether that’s a first time buyer, someone buying a multi-million pound property or a family selling a house on behalf of a relative who has passed away,” states Jennifer.
CooperBurnett’s people philosophy isn’t just confined to their offices. It extends out into the community too given the amount of support the firm’s staff gives the businesses and residents of Tunbridge Wells, and the surrounding area.
Partner Tom Lumsden supports The Pickering Cancer Drop-In Centre, carrying out pro bono work. Victoria and Joseph are BID Directors and Victoria, Katie Gillam and John Spence have all held the role of President of Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge & District Law Society. Victoria is a co-founder of enTWine – a unique business forum for Tunbridge Wells. The firm has also sponsored the TN card Tonbridge Business Awards and Tunbridge Wells Business Awards and is supporting the annual Walk Tonbridge Festival event in September for a fifth year.
Jennifer tells me she greatly enjoys the annual fundraising expeditions she and her colleagues take part in – including the recent CB Charity Coastal Challenge. In June TeamCB completed ten marathons in a single day and raised over £10,000 for the firm’s chosen charity Jigsaw South East. The sum was then matched, pound for pound, by CooperBurnett’s equity partners resulting in £20,000 going to the children’s bereavement cause.
It will come as no surprise that Jennifer successfully completed one of the ten marathons in order to raise the much-needed funds.
“Here at CooperBurnett we really do have such a friendly and supportive environment and unlike some other firms it is not hierarchical. When people come here they immediately notice how different it is – especially if they have come from a large corporate firm.”
On that note Jennifer says that CooperBurnett does have a very positive relationship with the town’s other solicitors.
“We will often refer work to one another but I think that is very unique to being here in Tunbridge Wells. We are lucky enough that there is enough work to go around.”
Clients that have moved elsewhere in the country still tend to instruct CooperBurnett says Jennifer.
“The technology we have in place allows for this. However, the majority of the time our clients will be people we already know and have worked with previously. It’s funny because when I returned here in 2003 we had no personal email addresses or website but my former clients from the firm I was at still managed to find me!
“I never imagined I would be in this position but I had a very good role model in Jonathan Smithers. He taught me such good professional ethics and I have always passed these onto those I work with. I feel very proud of my colleagues and very much enjoy seeing them progress. To watch them become successful makes me very proud indeed.
“I have really enjoyed this journey so far and it is my intention to grow the department even further – so watch this space!”
www.cooperburnett.com
