New Year, new roles at Wards -  22 December 2006

Two senior solicitors at Wards have been promoted to Associate from 1 January 2007. Ian Williamson is a disputes lawyer, who qualified as a solicitor in 1995, having trained at Osborne Clarke. He joined Wards Bristol City centre office in 1997 and deals with most aspects of disputes work, acting for both business and private clients. His main fields of expertise are land disputes, contract (including debt recovery), negligence and disputes relating to wills. Somewhat unexpectedly for a solicitor, Ian has a PhD in German philosophy and used to be a cartoonist, before turning to the law.

Heather Jones is a property solicitor who joined Wards’ Weston-super-Mare office in 2004, after spending 4 years working for a law firm in Wolverhampton. She specialises in all aspects of commercial property work, including sales and acquisitions, and assembling and promoting sites for development. Heather also handles the drafting and negotiation of business leases, where clients are a mix of both landlords and tenants and deals with property acquisitions into SIPPs (self-invested personal pensions).

Managing Partner, David Sheridan, says “Promotion to Associate is not automatic and reflects the seniority and contribution made to date by Ian and Heather to growing the business.”