Legal 500 Archives

Tees maintains six Tier 1 teams in Legal 500 rankings

Posted on 2 October 202429 March 2025 by Sarah O'Sullivan

Tees Law is pleased to announce success in this year’s Legal 500 directory, with six practice areas ranked as ‘Tier 1’.

The Top Tier ranking has been awarded to:

Private client > Agriculture and estates
Real estate > Commercial property: Essex
Insurance > Personal injury and clinical negligence: claimant
Private client > Contentious trusts and probate
Private client > Personal tax, trusts and probate: Beds, Bucks, Herts, Middx
Private client > Personal tax, trusts and probate: Essex
In total, Tees have been ranked in 21 practice areas in the world’s leading directory of law firms.

The firm is delighted to see nine leading partners, five next-generation partners, and eight leading associates recognised in the 2025 list.

Next generation partners

Baljeet Kaur
Daniel Fairs
Ian Johnston
Nicola Havers
Sarah Walker

Leading associates

Sara Stabler
Alex Waples
Ana James-Pittau
Chris Claxton-Shirley
Katherine Jameson
Lucy Beck
Polly Kerr
Sarah White

Senior Partner Catherine Mowat has once again been recognised in the Hall of Fame and commented: “This year’s results highlight the commitment and hard work of our teams at Tees. I am honoured to be named in the Hall of Fame again this year. Thank you to our wonderful clients and referrers for the great feedback provided.”

Group Managing Director Ashton Hunt said: “I am pleased to see Tees recognised in the Legal 500 rankings in another successful year. It’s brilliant to see so many of our practice areas receiving Tier 1 status, along with many Associates being named as leading in their field. Everyone at Tees always works hard to provide the best quality service and I’m truly delighted to see the results.”

Tees Law is a major regional law firm with offices in Bishop’s Stortford, Cambridge, Royston, Saffron Walden, Brentwood and Chelmsford. As part of the local community for over 100 years, Tees continues to support clients from generation to generation.

Tees to sponsor new award at Eastern Echo Awards

Posted on 13 May 202429 March 2025 by Sarah O'Sullivan

Tees Law is set to sponsor a brand-new award for Responsible Employer of the Year at the Eastern Echo Awards. Now in their third year, the awards will take place on the evening of Wednesday, 26 June, in Cambridge to celebrate the best of the East of England’s property industry.

The black-tie event will be attended by leaders from across the property sector and country, with our very own Commercial Property team due to attend to present the new award.

Tees is a top-tier Legal 500 commercial property firm. Our clients include national and international investors, trusts and pension funds, national retailers, trading companies, local authorities, private and public healthcare providers, schools, and colleges. Tees is also a national panel member of the NFU (covering Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk) – one of only 16 law firms on the panel. This is a recognition of the outstanding quality of our service and expert knowledge of both agricultural law and a broad range of legal services for families and businesses.

Partner and head of Commercial Property in Cambridge, Sarah Coates, said: “Responsible business strategy is at the heart of Tees Law and in one of the most unequal cities in the UK, where there is still so much focus on the need for growth and development, it is essential that this remains the case. Tees Law is proud to be sponsoring this award and give others a platform to showcase their efforts to ensure “good growth” in the city.”

New for 2024, the award for Responsible Employer of the Year is being sponsored by Tees and organisers asked to hear from a company/consultant/project team that can demonstrate how successful it has been in delivering a responsible business strategy. Measurables were to include how businesses incorporated innovation, adoption of social responsibility, engagement in the local community, approach to the environment and governance or feedback from clients or a supply chain on the approach taken to do responsible business.

Excitingly, the shortlisted teams and individuals have now been announced following submissions from leading professionals.

(Responsible) Employer of the Year (sponsored by Tees)

Gen Two Real Estate
KMC Transport Planning
Lanpro Services
RG Carter
Saunders Boston Architects

The Eastern Echo Awards is targeted at projects, people, and places across the East of England and will be judged by a panel with extensive experience and knowledge. The panel covers a range of property sectors, including office, industrial, retail, life science, and residential.

The design of the awards itself is responsible, considering the need to reduce carbon footprint. The event’s location is deliberately near public transport, and digital ticketing is implemented to limit the use of paper.

Managing Director Matthew Battle at the UK Property Forums, who is organising this event, said: “The quality and range of projects submitted this year have been truly impressive, and we have easily exceeded last year’s total of entrants. This has ensured that the judges had their work cut out.

“The competition is very strong. Entries have come from all corners of the East for the 12 awards which will be up for grabs at a black-tie awards night dinner on 26 June at Homerton College, Cambridge.

“One notable feature of this year’s submissions is the wide-ranging geographical locations many have come from, including Stevenage, Welwyn, Norwich, Peterborough and Cambridge.”

All shortlisted businesses and projects can be viewed online: https://ukpropertyforums.com/shortlist-unveiled-for-eastern-echo-awards/

The judges have been busy looking at submissions that cover the 12 months of 2023 and have organised site visits to assess progress. We look forward to attending Homerton College in Cambridge in June to see who is awarded on the night and network with fellow commercial property professionals.

Tees Law now boasts six Top Tier practice areas in Legal 500

Posted on 6 October 202329 March 2025 by Sarah O'Sullivan

Tees Law enjoyed widespread success in this year’s Legal 500 directory, adding Private Client – Personal tax, trusts and probate in Essex to the highest Top Tier ranking.

Ian Johnston, Partner and lead of the Private Client team in Tees’ Essex based offices of Chelmsford, Brentwood and Saffron Walden, moved up the rankings becoming a Next Generation Partner. One client commented, “Ian Johnston is a fine example of the ability of the firm to deliver the human approach to what can be very serious discussions.”

The Personal tax, trusts and probate team is described as having an “outstanding reputation for quality” and as being “consummately professional, and yet provide a service which feels warm, friendly and personal. All considerations are covered and delivered in an understandable yet thorough manner.”

In total, 27 different Tees Law practice areas were ranked in the latest update of the world’s leading directory of Law Firms.

Tees Law was delighted to see a total of 8 Leading Individuals, 5 Next Generation Partners and 7 Rising Stars. A staggering 46 of the firm’s solicitors have been listed as Recommended Lawyers with an increase of 16 this year.

Tees Law is a major regional law firm with offices in Bishop’s Stortford, Cambridge, Royston, Saffron Walden, Brentwood and Chelmsford. As part of the local community for over a century, Tees Law has supported clients from generation to generation.

The recurring theme throughout the client testimonials published this year highlights the firm’s focus on the client’s needs. An Essex Commercial Property client stated, “The team are great to work with. They all put each case in such high regard. All members of the team are professional and hold your best interest as a client highly.”

Another client praised “A first class firm with many talented individuals. Their client focus, commerciality and friendliness has been outstanding.”

Group Managing Director at Tees Law, Ashton Hunt, commented: “Once again the success and dedication of our teams and individuals shines through in the Legal 500 rankings. I am delighted to see so many practice areas receiving accolades and to have increased our number of Tier 1 rankings. At Tees, we always strive to be renowned experts and provide personal and commercially tailored advice to our clients.”

Catherine Mowat, Senior Partner at Tees Law, who was this year named in the Hall of Fame, added: “This year’s results highlight the diligence and commitment of our highly skilled teams. It is an honour to be named in the Hall of Fame and I would like to thank all of our clients and referrers for their wonderful feedback.”