Blanchards Bailey: new appointments at growing law firm

Expanding law firm Blanchards Bailey LLP has appointed two new lawyers to help meet demand following sustained business growth over the last financial year.

Kelly Miller and Elisha Jones have both joined Blanchards Bailey from Humphries Kirk’s Wareham office and have bolstered Blanchards Bailey’s award winning private client department.

Miller, who qualified as a solicitor in 2009, specialises in all areas of private client work, advising on administration of estates, wills, declarations of trusts, tax planning and lasting powers of attorney.

She said: “I am definitely a people person. I enjoy the fact that my specialism allows me to work closely with clients and provide them with the support and expertise that they need, albeit at a time that is usually very difficult. My job is very rewarding and I relish the challenges ahead. I am looking forward to providing strategic advice and support to clients and working with the exceptional lawyers at Blanchards Bailey. I am looking forward to being part of their specialist agricultural and rural estate team. Being a farmer’s wife and a ‘farmhand’, helps me understand the demands of farming and enable me to provide bespoke advice to Blanchards Bailey’s large agricultural client base.”

Legal Assistant Jones, a graduate member of Chartered Institute of Legal Executives who also has a law degree, will work closely with the firm’s head of private client Jerome Dodge. She is studying to qualify as a chartered legal executive.

She said: “I thrive on doing a job that stimulates me intellectually and provides the opportunity to learn new things every day. I am looking forward to the variety my new role offers and to working in Blanchards Bailey’s private client team, delivering solutions in the most effective manner possible as part of a progressive, forward-looking firm.”

Blanchards Bailey managing partner Paul Dunlop said: “We are continuing to strengthen all departments and sectors as demand for our business expands across the board. We welcome Kelly and Elisha to the Blanchards Bailey family in the knowledge that their local experience will add greatly to our private client team."

Both Miller and Jones are based in Wareham, along with other colleagues who are also based in the town and are at present working remotely from there.

“With staff living and working across the whole of the county, we are better placed than ever to assist clients who do not live close to our offices but still want to use our services.”

Blanchards Bailey bucked the trend during the Covid-19 pandemic by continuing to invest heavily in staff and the latest technology and to offer a full service for individuals and businesses throughout Dorset – subsequently reporting sustained expansion.

Miller and Jones joined at the start of Blanchard Bailey’s 2021 financial year along with an influx of new and returning appointments to the firm. The litigation and disputes department is recruiting two lawyers and the conveyancing department is recruiting a lawyer. Associate Sarah Dunlop has returned to the firm after a year’s maternity leave to work alongside recent joiner Michelle Lane in the firm’s agriculture and estates property team.

Ninety-strong Blanchards Bailey is a Legal 500 firm – making it one of the top firms in the South West – and has offices in Poundbury, Shaftesbury and Weymouth, as well as Blandford.

The firm received extensive recognition in the UK's leading law sector directory, the Legal 500. The annual publication, The Legal 500 2020/21, mentions the firm in six categories with seven individual lawyers recommended.