Congratulations and Promotions – July 2023

The Wills & Probate team has grown from strength to strength in recent years, achieving excellent and sustained financial performance, receiving nominations for national awards and consistently ranking highly on review site ‘Review Solicitors’ based on independent client feedback.

The continuing success of the department is due in large part to the excellent team.  Whilst everyone has played their part, Kristina Wolfenden, Hazara Patel and Shazia Akhtar have stood and delivered over a number of years.  It is therefore with great pleasure that we would like to announce their promotions.

Kristina Wolfenden – Senior Associate

Kristina has been with the firm for over 8 years based at our Romford office and has positioned herself as one of the technical leads in the department.  More recently she has taken responsibility for nurturing talent by supervising the department’s up-and-coming lawyers (trainee solicitors and paralegals) training our future lawyers.  She has been very successful in this role which is well suited to her skills, so much so that she will be continuing her good work and increasing her responsibilities by assisting and supporting general firm-wide trainee solicitor supervision and training.

In addition, Kristina is studying towards the prestigious TEP (Trusts and Estate Practitioner) qualification – considered the gold standard for wills and probate lawyers and helps set her out as a true expert and leader in her field.

Her growing role in the firm has seen her standing in as lead in the department in the absence of the Head of Department, Manzurul.  As a reward for her hard work Kristina will be promoted to Senior Associate with effect from July 2023.

Hazara Patel – Associate

Despite having only joined the firm in 2021, Hazara quickly settled in and made herself an invaluable colleague.  She works between our Romford and Shenfield office and has been active in business development by promoting and managing some of the firm’s social medial channels.  She previously sat on the social committee before more recently taking over responsibility for leading the firm’s staff forum, acting as the bridge between the staff and management team to put into effect feedback and ideas which help improve the firm.

Hazara has also dedicated two years studying towards her TEP qualification and finally completed the very demanding course this summer.  She passed all modules, some of which included 6-hour exams, with either Merit or Distinction and is on course to be TEP accredited very soon.

Hazara helps set the standards for the rest of the department and her promotion to Associate from July 2023 is well deserved.

Shazia Akhtar – Associate

As a relatively new addition to the firm who joined in 2021, Shazia has always felt like part of the family.

Shazia is mainly home based and in spite of living nearly 100 miles away from our Head Office in Romford, has helped pioneer successful remote working at the firm.  She has demonstrated that distance is no barrier to having a successful career and ensures she takes an active part in team meetings, business development and compliance all whilst making sure the clients’ needs are fully met.

She is an all-round strong performer and has exceeded target every month since she joined.  Her level of consistency is almost unrivalled.

More recently Shazia has been entrusted with overseeing the firm’s training and library needs which will allow her to showcase her management and leadership skills dealing with the 80+ members of staff who have training requirements.

Promotion to Associate with effect from July 2023 is just reward for Shazia’s hard work in her time at the firm.

Manzurul Islam, Head of our Wills and Probate team, said: “Congratulations to all three of you on your well-deserved achievements.  We are all looking forward to working more closely with you in the future as you take a more active role in some of the management and leadership functions in the firm.”