Temple Heelis maintains leadership in private client and rural specialisms
In three recently-published independent guides to the UK legal profession, Temple Heelis has not just maintained but increased its position as a top firm in all aspects of private client work and in the rural and agricultural sector.
Two separate guides assess the firm’s Private Client team and work. The High Net Worth Guide (which specialises in Private Client assessments) describes Temple Heelis as ‘a major presence in the Cumbrian legal market’. The team’s strengths include being able to ‘handle complicated matters yet explain them in a simplified way’, ‘responses to queries are always timely and they have provided a high level of service’ and a team with ‘a good number of principals and supporting staff to provide breadth and depth of assistance and advice.’
Ranked in Band 1 (top tier), three partners are singled out as top of their profession: Jamie Hamilton (also the firm’s managing partner), Robert Kornas (head of department) and Laura Priestley. Qualities ascribed to these individuals include ‘strong legal knowledge’, ‘commercially aware’, ‘highly experienced’, ‘exceptional level of knowledge’, ‘empathetic’, ‘a fantastic solicitor’ and ‘absolutely excellent.’
Temple Heelis is the only firm in this region to be ranked by the HNW Guide.
The Legal 500 ranks firms throughout the North West from the Midlands to the Scottish border and describes Temple Heelis as being ‘modern and forward-thinking’ and with a specialism in ‘advising high-net-worth individuals and families who often have assets in multiple jurisdictions’. Partners are described as ‘excellent’ (Robert Kornas), ‘highly capable’ (Jamie Hamilton) and with wide ‘expertise’ (Laura Priestley).
Developing the firm’s Rural Land and Property practice over the past few years, partner Peter Dodd has again been recognised for his outstanding contribution to the sector and wealth of knowledge. Assessing this specialism on a North West-wide basis, Chambers and Partners describes the firm as ‘well established’ and ‘with all the technical expertise necessary to deal with tricky issues in a pragmatic and cost-effective manner’. The Guide adds ‘Temple Heelis has a very experienced, knowledgeable and personable team who offer a professional service and have strong links to the local area’, adding that ‘the level of service is extremely high’ and work is thorough and reassuring. Peter Dodd is described as always giving ‘considered, intelligent responses in a language that a layperson can understand. He is a true professional who would never compromise on good practice.” He is ‘approachable and helpful to both agents and clients.’
Likewise, the Legal 500 assesses firms with a rural and agricultural specialism on a North West-wide basis and describes Temple Heelis as ‘thoroughly modern and forward thinking’ with an ‘expert group experienced in agricultural matters … with particular knowledge of the Lake District” and “unique knowledge in the hospitality and leisure sectors.”
Echoing Chambers and Partners’ views of Peter Dodd, Legal 500 describes him as ’experienced, thorough, pragmatic and approachable. Dodd has extensive experience advising high-net-worth individuals on rural matters such as farming and agricultural businesses’. He is further described as ‘approachable with a friendly, can-do attitude’, ‘thoroughly professional and helpful’ and very responsive’. Overall ‘the team are experts in properties with challenges.’
Commenting on all the results attributed to Temple Heelis, managing partner Jamie Hamilton says: “We were first encouraged to apply to the three directories in 2019 to be assessed independently. Each year, it is a detailed and rigorous process involving written submissions, interviews and independent client feedback. Each year, both the quality of our work and the calibre of our team is recognised by the guides. I wish to pay tribute to everyone involved in Temple Heelis’ exceptional teams for the work they do, the high level of service they deliver to our clients, and the complexities they often have to deal with.”
Chambers and Partners (and its specialist private client High Net Worth Guide) have published guides to the legal profession since 1990 and have a team of over 200 full time researchers based in London. Their objective is to identify and rank the world’s best lawyers and law firms in each jurisdiction, based on in-depth, objective research. The Legal 500 has been analysing law firm’s capabilities for 33 years and currently researches 150 jurisdictions, conducting over 30,000 interviews a year. Their rankings are based on a series of criterial which aim to highlight teams which are providing the most cutting edge and innovative advice.