Sacco Mann Talks To… Lyn Ayrton at Lake Legal

The hard work and commitment of the entire team which is consistently recognised both locally and nationally. The firm (and individual members of the team) has been ranked in the top tier of Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 for many years, and we have won the Family Law Award at the Yorkshire Legal Awards. We receive referrals not only from other professionals in the area but from other solicitors who are our competitors. Despite this external recognition, nothing makes me more proud than the feedback from our clients. Reading a comment such as… “It is honestly not an over statement to say that I wouldn’t be here today (mentally and physically) if it had not been for you”…makes all the hard work worthwhile. 

 

I think we will always ‘just’ be a niche family law firm with one office.  I have been tempted over the years to ‘branch out’ but time and time again our strength has been shown to be one team in one location doing one area of law, very well.

 

We like to bring a little humour to how we promote ourselves and what we do!.  We are proud of our qualifications and achievements but don't take ourselves too seriously. We have made crown green bowling ‘cool’ – we have sponsored Moor Allerton Crown Green Bowling Club (ensuring their survival) for 10 years. Many of the members have become our friends; “It was certainly MABC’s lucky day when we hosted your first evening. You have given a group of OAPs a lifeline and we cannot thank you enough”. Had I still been at one of those large corporate firms, the idea of such sponsorship would have not even have been entertained.

When we are serious though, we are at the forefront of spearheading new initiatives – I was one of the first lawyers in the region to qualify as an Arbitrator, immediately forming a collaboration with others to promote arbitration as a dispute resolution option. Most recently I have co-ordinated an initiative with leading local barristers to offer Private FDRs so that clients have even more alternatives in the region. 

 

Having worked in corporate firms that seemed to have little regard for the fact that staff should have a life outside of work, one of my objectives from the start with Lake Legal was to ensure that the team did not share my own experience. Billing targets are therefore easily achievable within normal working hours - if someone is consistently recording massive amounts of chargeable time it concerns me rather than delights me because the balance is off kilter. No one should regularly have to work evenings and weekends!.  Our ‘Prosecco Friday’ seems to have become fairly well known in Leeds where we just pause over a glass (or two!) in the office and take time out from work. I think being so close as a team we can spot when someone is having a tough time and we all ‘watch out for each other’. I have striven to encourage openness and fairness. My message for the team has always been ‘we are human, we will make mistakes, it’s what we do about them that matters’.  

 

I think we have a brilliant team spirit at Lake Legal. Everyone is so incredibly supportive of each other. I think the fact that the team wake up on a morning and actually want to come into work speaks volumes. In turn, for me it has been really rewarding to be able to fund events, during the working week, which the team would not necessarily do themselves. We started out with a relatively simple day out (in a private limo mind you!) at York Races, progressing to a day of indulgence in London (including a private capsule on the London Eye), then travelling in old fashioned luxury on the Northern Belle to Edinburgh and leading all the way through to me taking everyone to Euro Disney for the weekend to mark our tenth year anniversary. We still talk about them all!  We will be back to another event next year - I just have to top Euro Disney! I am passionately committed to team development which has seen Claire Glaister appointed from assistant solicitor to associate to partner, one office secretary developed into an IT and marketing role and another into the Practice Manager’s role. I firmly believe that no-one should be curtailed by their CV, especially support staff, and like to think I have the uncanny ability to match one of the team with a particular role before they even knew they were suited to it!  

 

Painful endings are often the start of something far better! I wholeheartedly believe, and it’s reflected in the culture of the firm, that ‘if you fear to fall, you will never fly’

 

The courts were already struggling to cope with the number of cases before Covid 19 came along. I think the legal profession will need to embrace alternative means of resolving disputes otherwise it will now just come to a grinding halt.  Arbitration is one obvious means for family law clients to remove themselves form the delay and formality that comes with an application issued in court. I can see a time when the courts have to start charging in some shape or form for the time allocated to certain family law cases so that it is not over subscribed.