WHN makes senior promotion

Woodcocks Haworth and Nuttall Solicitors has its sights on growth after promoting one of its lawyers.

Holly Gethin, who is a private client solicitor, has been promoted to head up WHN’s wills, trusts and probate service at its Bury office.

The 30-year-old joined WHN in 2010 and trained in the firm’s specialist asset protection team before qualifying as a solicitor in 2012. For the past four years Holly has played a key role in delivering an expert legal service to local families and individuals, advising on all aspects of wills, trusts and probate to enable people to protect their assets.

The new role will see Holly drive WHN’s private client division in Bury, which already handles lasting powers of attorney, applications to the Court of Protection, family and child law matters and residential conveyancing.

Speaking of the promotion, Michael Shroot, who is a partner at WHN and in charge of the Bury office, said: “WHN has seen a spike in demand for its private client services over the past few years, particularly wills and trusts. This area of law is very complicated and many people are now recognising plans for the future need to be legally watertight and carefully thought out by specialist solicitors and not thrown together by DIY wills or online portals.

“Holly is a gifted member of our team and her promotion is well deserved. She provides a beacon of expertise in a complicated area of legal practice and has a bright future ahead.”

As part of WHN’s sabbatical scheme, Holly travelled Australia and has now returned to her Lancashire roots to resume her role at WHN.

Michael added: “WHN is committed to attracting and nurturing the very best legal talent to ensure we offer a first class service to our clients and continue to grow commercially as a business. We always try to be creative and flexible with the aspirations of our people to ensure we’re an employer of choice, and our sabbatical scheme is instrumental in doing that.

“We were happy to facilitate Holly’s career break but are delighted to have her back. She’s a real asset to the business.”

Holly commented: “The time I spent travelling in Australia enabled me to see life from different perspectives and grow as an individual, which I believe has helped to make me a more rounded professional person.

“My new role is very client focused and there are times when I have to deal with people in difficult situations, such as a family bereavement. Hopefully I can make a deeply upsetting period a little easier by helping to remove as much stress as possible from the unavoidable legal process.”

Holly is currently studying for the STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) qualification, which will further enhance her specialist knowledge.