B P Collins wins at the BB&O Law Society’s Legal Excellence Awards

B P Collins' Holly McNeil has won the “Junior Lawyer of the Year” award at the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (BB&O) Law Society’s Legal Excellence Awards, while the firm's Matthew Brandis was a finalist in its ‘Lawyer of the Year’ category. The annual event celebrates and recognises the achievements of those in the legal profession across the three counties.

The BB&O Law Society recognised that since Holly McNeil qualified into B P Collins’ corporate and commercial team, her outstanding level of work has meant that she runs her own caseload, while also supporting the wider senior team on a variety of different and complex corporate and commercial matters. Holly’s extensive knowledge of Data Protection laws has also led to her to carving out a specialism with clients early on in her legal career and frequently advising on a range of data protection issues.

Holly is also committed to mentoring the firm’s paralegals, trainees and work experience students, and is determined to provide a positive experience for those thinking about becoming a lawyer or just starting out in their legal career. 

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Holly said: “Thank you to the BB&O Law Society for this award. Thanks also to B P Collins and my colleagues at the firm, who have encouraged me from day one by not only giving me the opportunity to develop my own portfolio of clients and work on exciting corporate deals, but also for providing the space to become a mentor to our work experience students as well as supporting our trainees, who appreciate that extra level of support when starting out. Finally, thank you to my brilliant clients who I enjoy advising and working with every day.”

As leader of B P Collins’ dispute resolution team, Matthew Brandis was selected as a finalist due to his expertise in the resolution of complex commercial disputes, partnership disputes, professional negligence claims and contentious probate matters.  Under his leadership, his team was recognised in The Times’ Best Law Firms 2023 for its litigation services - the second year running.

With a reputation for winning high profile cases, Matthew has conducted litigation in most civil divisions of the High Court and in the Court of Appeal; and his advice has been sought by a large number of companies and individuals on a wide-range of civil disputes for over 26 years.

Matthew is also an accredited and experienced Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) mediator, acting for both Claimants and Defendants in a range of complex cases. He recently founded an innovative new mediation business as a sister business to B P Collins called “SettleMyDispute” (see www.settlemydispute.co.uk), which deals with swift, out of court resolutions of disputes.

Matthew said: “From working on matters that are changing the legal landscape to creating an environment which is attracting and retaining the best legal minds in the region, this event confirmed the vibrancy of the legal sector across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists.”