Law firm welcomes new solicitors

Gemma Macintyre and Melissa Scott have started their roles as solicitors at Wright Hassall in Leamington. Gemma, now part of the planning team, joined the firm in 2019 as a paralegal in the property litigation team before being promoted to senior paralegal and later beginning her training contract. Wright Hassall’s training programme allows colleagues to gain experience across the business, enabling Gemma to enhance her property litigation knowledge and spend time in the planning team. She also took part in a secondment at the University of Warwick’s in-house legal department, where she gained experience in commercial contracts and data protection. Gemma said she is extremely pleased to have qualified and really enjoyed the training contract which allowed her to move around and try different elements of law, with a view to choosing a specialism. She added that she enjoys property law and planning feels like a natural fit as it is a niche area which is always changing, and that Wright Hassall has a fantastic planning team. She said she now looks forward to continuing to develop and hone her skills as a planning solicitor.

Melissa, who has joined the firm’s construction and engineering team, started at Wright Hassall in 2021 as a paralegal in the debt recovery team. During her training contract, she developed her knowledge in debt recovery and gained experience in commercial, commercial property, commercial litigation, and construction and engineering. Melissa said the training contract was an excellent experience which enabled her to work across different specialisms and that all of her supervisors have been so supportive. She said she knew quite early on that she wanted to be a disputes lawyer but still wanted a well-rounded experience where she gained a good overview of the different departments within the firm and how they all interlink. She added that she is really pleased to have qualified and is now keen to continue gaining as much knowledge as possible to progress in her career, building her reputation in the construction legal sector.

Wright Hassall Partner Lucie Byron, who oversees trainees within the firm, said the most satisfying part of their graduate programme is retaining excellent people and watching them start their qualified years with the firm. She said in Gemma and Melissa they have two fantastic examples of trainees who have chosen specialist disciplines having thrived in them during their training contracts. She added that adding skilled lawyers to their teams who truly understand the business enhances the service they can offer their clients and is testament to the success of their trainee scheme.

Photo - Lucie Byron (left) and Melanie Wood (right), who are responsible for overseeing trainees within the firm, with Melissa Scott and Gemma Macintyre

Copyright & permissions