North East law firm Jacksons’ new build team continues to expand with the recruitment of two property experts as the housing marketing remains buoyant.
Partner, Jonathan Wall who heads up the New Build and Residential Conveyancing teams joined Jacksons in 2018 when there was a total of seven members of staff working in those teams. This number has increased to 18 and there are plans to expand in the firm’s Newcastle office over the next few months.
Property Solicitor, Luke Pennington joined the firm last autumn to further strengthen the position as a leading law firm in offering this type of niche property transaction. Luke, from Acklam studied for his degree at Teesside University and completed the Legal Practice Course at Northumbria University. He has a wide range of experience including new build purchases, part exchange transactions and re mortgage transactions.
Conveyancing Executive, Kristee Brown from Guisborough joined the firm in December 2020 and is currently undertaking a CILEX diploma. She has extensive experience of advising clients on all aspect of the buying and selling process from start to finish. Kristee also specialises in transfer of equity and shared ownership properties. She joins Luke in the firm’s Stockton office.
During the last few years Jonathan has built up strong relationships with housing developers in the region, who refer house buyers to the firm including Bellway, Thirteen Group, Linden Homes, Gleeson, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Homes by Esh, Story Homes, Gentoo Homes and Miller Homes.
Turnover in the new build team has risen by 150% in the last two years under Jonathan’s management and leadership and that figure is forecast to more than double in the new financial year. New instructions have increased by 233% in the same time period.
Jonathan said, “2020 proved to be the year unlike any other; the year when things changed by the minute and we had to adapt at speed to keep up with the new changes the pandemic brought to our working life. It was no different in the legal sector and 2020 proved to be an extremely challenging year. However, all was not lost to the year of 2020 as can be seen from the continued growth of our residential property teams across both offices. Luke and Kristee are already making a positive impact on the team’s performance and have settled into their new role despite working from home and the other challenges that the pandemic has thrown at them.”
The area of new build property has its own niche within conveyancing and is an extremely technically challenging area of the law. The New Build Department has key expertise in a number of specific new build property areas including, The Government Help to Buy Scheme, New Build Warranty Scheme Documents, Help to Buy ISAs and Lifetime ISAs, Planning Permissions and Building Regulations Approvals, Section 106 agreements to name but a few.
Jacksons Law firm is one of the North East’s longest established law firms and has been practising in the Tees Valley for over 140 years. Operating from its head office in Stockton on Tees, and an office in Newcastle upon Tyne, it is well placed to assist clients across the region on a wide range of business and personal legal advice.
