Vincents Solicitors appoints new commercial property lawyer

Vincents Solicitors has recruited experienced commercial property specialist Olivia Hepworth to its team in Preston.

Olivia is working on the firm’s social housing portfolio and also looking after commercial transactions for private developers and landlords. 

She joins Vincents from Farleys Solicitors, prior to which she worked at Clough and Willis in Bury and Squire Sanders (now Squire Patton Boggs) where she completed her training contract. 

Olivia said: “My favourite part of the job is developing relationships with clients and getting to understand their commercial priorities, and then successfully completing particularly difficult matters which are crucial to help their businesses progress. 

“I was keen to expand my remit into the social housing sector and Vincents is well known for its portfolio of clients in that arena. It is extremely satisfying working with these clients and being able to have such a positive impact to support their aims.”

Olivia is advising social housing providers in relation to complex leasing and property development arrangements involving multiple parties, including dealing with Agreements for Lease/Underlease, Leases and any Collateral Warranties required.

Phillip Gilmore, Vincents managing director, said: “Olivia’s expertise makes her the perfect fit for the expansion of our commercial property team here in Preston. Her commercial mindset and attention to detail will make her a valuable asset for both social housing and private commercial clients across the business.”

Before coming into the law Olivia, who has a Modern Languages degree and speaks French, Spanish and Italian, worked as a global exports administrator. She secured a training contract at Squire Sanders and worked as a paralegal for a year before undertaking her GDL and LPC qualifications. Now 10 years post-qualification, Olivia is an advocate for the vocational entry into the profession. 

She said: "There are so many different entry points for the law now, it’s not only open to people who choose it at the age of 18. Because I had an undergraduate degree I was able to take the one-year conversion and progress quite quickly. There are also in-house training programmes and apprenticeships for those without a degree, and I think that’s so important for the profession to be accessible to people from all walks of life and who have valuable experience of jobs and training other than the law.

“I think it really benefits clients to have access to a legal team with a variety of experience on their side, which is exactly what we have here at Vincents, and is one of the key reasons I wanted to join the firm.”