Judith Derbyshire has been a qualified solicitor since 1983, including 20 years as Company Secretary and Corporate Counsel of Clarks Shoes. She has also held a number of other roles, including Chair of Governors of Millfield School and Trustee of various Clark family charitable trusts.

Most of her working career has been spent in a modern commercial environment where she gave clear and sensible advice, often at short notice. At Clarks she was also responsible for a range of administrative tasks which had to be completed within rigid timelines.

Judith says:

" When my brother-in-law died we used the firm of solicitors who had prepared his Will. We met them with his two sons on the day after the funeral, and all my instincts told me to walk away. They were clearly disorganised, and even forgot our appointment. However, we were feeling raw and we wanted to get home to Somerset. None of us felt we had the authority to challenge the choice of solicitor and were unused to working together as a group. We were all distressed, and not in a state to make good decisions.

The solicitors proved disastrous. We were passed from lawyer to lawyer, most of whom knew little about Probate. Letters and phone calls were not returned. They would not even communicate with us by e-mail. They caused us a great deal of additional stress, rather than help us through a difficult time.

It was simply not good enough. They then attempted to charge for the work based on time spent plus a percentage of the value of the estate, and because they spent so long (each new lawyer having to get up to speed with the whole file) the time cost alone was excessive.

My experience of this made me decide to leave Clarks and set up Purely Probate, to help people through a difficult and challenging time. "

 

 

A qualified chartered accountant, Peter has worked in the professional, local government and further education sectors. He has also run his own business.

Peter has been a professional counsellor and mentor and has excellent listening skills - an unusual compliment to his natural numeracy and a perfect combination for Purely Probate.

 

 

Rebecca Bristow qualified as a solicitor in 2003. She trained and worked as a solicitor in Bevan Ashford's Exeter office before moving to Everys, another well-established firm of solicitors in Devon.

She specialises in private client work, including the administration of complex estates, will drafting, inheritance tax planning, and setting up and managing trusts.

Rebecca has wide ranging experience in dealing with elderly people and those with impaired capacity. She has acted as attorney for clients who are unable to manage their own affairs, and is an expert on Professional Deputyships (where the client no longer has capacity to grant a Power of Attorney).

Rebecca is highly organised and efficient, as well as being approachable, friendly and sympathetic. As her many clients will confirm, she provides an excellent legal service within an agreed timetable.

 

 

Linda Hall's first career was as a civil servant. She left to take a degree in law and graduated in 2004. Since then she worked for Porter Dodson in Sherborne before moving on to be private client manager for Roger Gay & Co. in Somerton.

She has 8 years' experience of probate, wills and lasting powers of attorney.

Linda is a great communicator, is thoroughly professional and empathetic to her clients' needs.