An East Midlands law firm is celebrating a triple endorsement from the industry for its work in the field of family law.
Partner Ruth Jones was shortlisted in the Lifetime Achievement category at the Derby and District Law Society Awards while Adele Woods, an associate at the firm, was in the final three for Solicitor of the Year.
Adele Woods is an associate solicitor who has practised in family law since qualifying as a solicitor in 2009 and deals with complex and sensitive cases which involve some of society’s most vulnerable people, relating to divorce, children, forced marriage and domestic abuse.
The Derby and District Law Society Awards followed the announcement that Adele had received Family Law Accreditation from the Law Society.
The accreditation is a quality mark for her services and was only granted after Adele had fulfilled the criteria in an intensive written submission, which asked for examples of her work and how she would respond to areas of law including divorce, finance and domestic abuse.
She said: “It was a 30-page assessment which looked at how you would advise clients in a range of scenarios. It was quite intensive, but it will now last five years and I can apply to renew it in 2028.
“It is a quality mark really, so people searching for lawyers will see that I have that accreditation. You also must have accreditation to be able to supervise legal aid so I am now also able to do that for Smith Partnership.”
Ruth is head of the Family team at Smith Partnership and her main area of work is advising clients on financial aspects of relationship breakdown. She represents a wide variety of individuals including senior executives, business people, GPs, accountants and sportspeople.
She said the award nominations and Adele’s accreditation helped to highlight the quality of service the firm prides itself on. “Adele is an exceptional family lawyer with an excellent reputation in the region. She works tirelessly for her clients to present their cases in the best way possible – always going the extra mile – to achieve the best possible results
“Adele is a real asset to the Smith Partnership family team and routinely deals with complex matters both in private law children work and in financial matters.”
