JACKSONS LAW FIRM - Key Persons
Alex completed his undergraduate degree at Newcastle University before completing his Legal Practice Course (LPC) at Northumbria University whilst working as a paralegal. He then completed his training contract at another Newcastle based firm, qualifying as a solicitor in 2021.
In his time working in law, Alex has gained experience working in several areas including litigation, clinical negligence and insolvency.
He joined Jacksons in January 2024 as a solicitor in the Litigation Team and works primarily from the firm's Newcastle office.
In his free time Alex enjoys watching and playing sport including football, cricket, cycling and Formula 1. He is a Sunderland AFC supporter.
Job Titles:
- Legal Executive, Commercial Litigation
Alison qualified as a Legal Executive in 2006. She has gained experience working in other law firms dealing mainly with personal injury litigation for large insurance clients and local authorities. She now deals primarily with commercial litigation involving road traffic accidents.
Alison acts for two of Jacksons' major clients covering a wide range of litigation actions and represents many other clients in the county courts throughout the North East. She is also a valued member of the equine team.
Job Titles:
- Head of Finance
- Partner
- Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Amie joined Jacksons in July 2018 to head up the finance department. She supports the profitable growth of Jacksons, helping to deliver exceptional client service while maintaining high standards within the accounting team. Amie was promoted to Partner in April 2020.
Amie is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).
Prior to joining Jacksons, Amie spent over ten years with a multinational US manufacturing organisation and three years with a not-for-profit organisation in the North East.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor, Residential Conveyancing Bespoke Team
Caroline joined Jacksons' HR Department in September 2022 to provide support to the firm's recruitment strategy and HR project work.
Prior to working at Jacksons, she was part of the HR Team at the Great North Air Ambulance Service.
She has experience working in a wide range of roles within the public and private sectors and is also a trained Teaching Assistant.
Caroline gained her degree in Human Resource Management at Northumbria University.
Caroline is a passionate supporter of the Great North Air Ambulance Service, Stray Aid, and The Dogs Trust. She enjoys reading, traveling and dog walks at the coast and countryside around the North East of England in her spare time.
Job Titles:
- Trainee Legal Executive, Litigation
Chloe's first interest in law started at A-level and she continued this interest graduating from Teesside University with a first-class honours degree in Law. She went on to complete a LPC LLM at Northumbria University before starting at Jacksons in 2022 as a Secretary in the Litigation team.
Chloe secured a Solicitor Training Contract starting her first seat in the Employment team in June 2023, and joined the Corporate Commercial team in January 2024. She splits her time between the firm's Newcastle and Teesside offices.
Chloe is an avid reader and enjoys holidaying in the sun and city breaks, as well as enjoying time with family and friends over a meal.
Christine joined Jacksons' Family Department in October 2022. Her extensive expertise in financial remedy cases means that she has for many years worked closely with most senior counsel, forensic accountants, tax and pension experts. Christine has a particular interest in advising clients in the following areas:
Pre and Post Nuptial Agreements
Divorce
Separation Agreements
Financial Remedy
Family Law Act Injunctions
Cohabitation Agreements
TOLATA Claims
Children Private Law Children
A native of the north east, Christine has been at the forefront of handling many highly complex and high-profile cases involving celebrities, members of the Bar and Judiciary and has acted for several Lottery and Euro Millions winners. Her cases have regularly involved assets of well over £100 million.
Christine is a Resolution Accredited Mediator; she has also lectured in Family Law at South Tyneside College.
Job Titles:
- Paralegal, Residential Conveyancing New Build Property Team
Job Titles:
- Solicitor, Residential Conveyancing Bespoke Team
Daniel joined Jacksons in September 2019 as a Solicitor in the Bespoke Residential Conveyancing department and works primarily out of our Teesside office. Daniel qualified as a solicitor in April 2019 and has worked primarily in Residential Conveyancing roles since starting his career in 2015.
Daniel specialises and deals with all aspects of residential conveyancing including sales, purchases (Freehold and Leasehold), Re-mortgages, transfers of equity, ID1's, auction packs and new build properties.
Outside of work Daniel enjoys playing golf, squash and karting.
David has over 25 years' experience in IT. Specialising in Legal Technology since 2005, David joined Jacksons in December 2021 to develop the firm's systems, streamlining processes to help us provide legal services more efficiently and improve the client experience.
Away from work, David is a martial arts instructor and enjoys watching rugby and motor sports as well as listening to music.
Deborah joined Jacksons in May 2023 and has over 20 years specialism as an employment solicitor. Deborah has acted for both employers and employees, having first acted for financial institutions and then spending many years acting for some of the largest trade unions' members, including managing equal pay work in what became a national campaign.
More recently she has acted for employer clients guiding HR and ER managers in a unionised environment and representing and advising in matters from trial advocacy to TUPEs. She has a practical pragmatic approach and has the knowledge and experience to see both sides enabling her to give fully rounded and practical advice.
Deborah qualified in the south having graduated in law from the University of Essex and College of Law Guildford, but returned home after having her first child, as she is a north easterner with roots in Teesside, North Yorkshire, and Wearside. She was born in Sunderland and grew up in Washington and now lives and works in Newcastle with her husband son and daughter, 2 cats and a mad cocker spaniel.
Job Titles:
- Paralegal, Commercial Property
Job Titles:
- Paralegal, Wills, Trusts and Probate
Job Titles:
- Trainee Paralegal, Commercial Property
Job Titles:
- Marketing and Business Development Manager
Emily joined Jacksons in June 2023 as Marketing and Business Development Manager. Teesside born and bred she's worked in various roles, including marketing and business development, for an Accountancy firm and, latterly, as Marketing and Business Development Manager in a national tech company, Communicate Technology.
She also has roles in The Teesside Charity as a Trustee, The Tees Valley Business Club as a Director and co-owns and runs Teesside-based coffee shops, Bentley's Coffee Shop.
Outside of work, Emily a keen walker, gym-goer, driver and, as an old biog used to say, loves ‘anything fast and dangerous'!
Emily graduated from the University of Sunderland in 2021, with a first-class honours LLB. She graduated as the top performing student in her year group and received the Cohen prize from the University which is awarded to the most ‘outstanding female law student'.
Emily has just completed her LPC at the University of Sunderland.
She joined Jacksons in September 2022 to begin her first seat in Jacksons' Dispute Resolution and Debt Recovery Department.
Emily is an avid reader, she loves music and has an interest in anything food related, however, spends most of her free time doing the activities that her twins enjoy.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor - Wills, Trusts and Probate
Job Titles:
- Associate Solicitor, Litigation and Equine Law
Job Titles:
- Associate Solicitor, Family
Emma studied Law at Northumbria University opting for the four year course which included the LPC and graduated in 2010. She also completed her Professional Skills Course at Northumbria University in 2016.
After graduating Emma commenced employment as a Paralegal in a legal aid firm in Gateshead. Emma was based in the Criminal Department dealing with cases of a wide variety ranging from offences of shoplifting to murder.
Emma Joined the Jacksons Matrimonial department as a Trainee Solicitor in January 2017 and qualified as a solicitor in February 2017. She primarily deals with children, divorce and financial matters.
Emma was promoted to Associate Solicitor in September 2022.
Outside of work Emma enjoys travelling abroad, running and horse riding. She has completed the Great North Run on a number of occasions and has competed in various show jumping and dressage equestrian events.
Job Titles:
- Partner and Head of Commercial Property
Hannah graduated with first class honours from Northumbria University in 2019, having completed the MLaw (Exempting) Programme, which is an integrated master's degree alongside the LPC.
She joined Jacksons in November 2019 in a supportive role for the Commercial Litigation department, before moving to the Newcastle office as a legal secretary to support support various teams including the Commercial Property, Employment, Family and Private Client departments.
In January 2022, Hannah began her training contract with Jacksons and qualified in January 2024. She works primarily out of the Newcastle office in the Commercial Property team.
Outside of work, Hannah enjoys spending time with family and friends, going to the gym and travelling.
Job Titles:
- Associate Solicitor, Commercial Property
Job Titles:
- Partner and Head of Private Client - Wills, Trusts and Probate
Job Titles:
- Associate Solicitor - Head of Newcastle Conveyancing, New Build Property Team
Jack completed his undergraduate degree at Durham University before completing his Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) at the University of Law and the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the University of Sunderland.
He began his training contract with Jacksons in April 2022 and qualified in October 2023. Jack is a solicitor in the Litigation team and works primarily from Jacksons head office in Teesside.
In his free time Jack enjoys playing and watching sport. He plays rugby for Middlesbrough Rugby Club and is a keen Middlesbrough Football Club supporter. When not playing sport Jack is usually spending time with friends or walking his dogs.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor Apprentice - Residential Conveyancing
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate Solicitor, Commercial Property
Job Titles:
- Partner - Head of Residential Conveyancing and Private Client Services
Job Titles:
- Associate Legal Executive, Litigation
Job Titles:
- Associate Solicitor, Head of Family Law
Kim graduated from Newcastle University in July 2018 with BA (HONS) in Politics, she then went on to study the Graduate Diploma in Law and the LLM in Legal Practice at Northumbria University until 2021.
Kim officially joined Jacksons in April 2022 as a Trainee Solicitor and completed her training with us in early 2023. She is now a Solicitor in the firm's Residential Conveyancing team.
When not at work Kim enjoys trips to the theatre, spending time with her family and travelling.
Job Titles:
- Paralegal, Commercial Property
Job Titles:
- Conveyancing Executive, Residential Conveyancing Bespoke Team
Job Titles:
- Solicitor Commercial Property
Job Titles:
- Paralegal / Team Leader, Residential Conveyancing New Build
Job Titles:
- Paralegal, Commercial Property
Martha graduated from Newcastle University in July 2018 and joined Jacksons as part of the Residential Conveyancing New Build team in October 2019.
Since joining Jacksons, Martha studied part time for her Legal Practice Course and LLM at BPP University in Leeds, which she completed in January 2022.
Martha qualified in January 2024, joining the Employment Law team, she splits her time equally between our Newcastle and Teesside offices.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor
- Partner and Head of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Originally from Lancashire, Nicola moved to the Tees Valley over 20 years ago to study for her law degree at Teesside University. After completing her Masters degree at Durham University, Nicola joined another highly-regarded firm in the Tees Valley where she undertook her training, qualified as a solicitor in 2003 and was made partner in 2007. After over 18 years at the same firm, she joined Jacksons as a partner in May 2019 as head of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Nicola is a solicitor in the commercial property team and is head of agricultural property.
Nicola advises landowners and farmers in all aspects of buying and selling agricultural property, including bare land, farms and estates.
She specialises in agricultural tenancies and advises clients regarding farm business tenancies, Agricultural Holdings Act tenancies, grazing agreements and other licences. Nicola has a particular interest in succession applications in respect of Agricultural Holdings Act tenancies and advises clients who wish to make such an application, guiding them through the application process and giving advice regarding subsequent tenancy arrangements.
As the firms main point of contact with the NFU, Nicola works with their teams, both regionally, and nationally, to build on the existing relationship to ensure that our teams continue to provide NFU members with the expert advice and great service they have enjoyed for many years.
Nicola also undertakes commercial property work and advises a wide range of clients from those with a single commercial property through to investors who have a nationwide portfolio. She advises on sales, purchases, landlord and tenant matters, secured lending and wayleaves, as well as a variety of other property related matters.
Outside of work Nicola enjoys visits to the theatre and volunteers with her local swimming club.
Nicola qualified as a Fellow of the Agricultural Law Association in 2011, one of the first in the North East to do so.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor Apprentice, Litigation
Oliver joined Jacksons in September 2023 as a Degree Solicitor Apprentice, following the completion of his A-levels at Yarm School.
Oliver is currently working in the Litigation team as he starts his training with the firm.
In his spare time, Oliver enjoys playing golf and watching football on the TV.
Job Titles:
- New Build Conveyancer / Team Leader, New Build Property Team
Job Titles:
- Associate Solicitor - Commercial Property
Job Titles:
- Assistant Head of Residential Conveyancing
Job Titles:
- Solicitor, Wills, Trusts and Probate
Job Titles:
- Associate Solicitor, Corporate and Commercial
Job Titles:
- Partner and Head of Property Litigation
Richard graduated from Teesside University in 2018 before later then completing his LPC and masters at the University of Law in Leeds the following year.
Whilst studying, Richard spent time working as a legal assistant to gain experience in numerous departments, including Family, Commercial Property, Wills, Trusts and Probate and others. He continued to do this full time in 2020 before beginning his training contract at Jacksons in January 2021.
Richard has completed his first and second seats in the firms' Dispute Resolution and Debt Recovery and Residential Conveyancing teams and is now completing his third seat in the Commercial Property team.
Outside of work Richard is a big sports fan, including cricket, football, golf and basketball.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor, Corporate Commercial
Simon Catterall is very highly regarded in courts and committees throughout the North of England for his candid representation of individuals and businesses at odds with the authorities. A former police and CPS prosecutor Simon specialises in providing comprehensive advice at the point of investigation and, where warranted, a tenacious defence to HSE, Environment Agency, Trading Standards, Food Safety and police prosecutions. Simon is strongly associated with many of the region's cattle markets and especially known in NFU and agricultural circles for his expertise, advice and service to the northern farming community.
In his free time Simon is an author, his debut novel Hob Hole published to much acclaim in September 2015. He is also a former President of the Tees Valley Law Society and current secretary of the Stan Hollis Memorial Committee, his work in connection with the latter greatly contributing to the recent unveiling of the memorial at Stewarts Park.
Simon's other interests include horse racing, cricket, playing gigs with his band, English and military history.
Job Titles:
- Partner and Head of Litigation
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner, Corporate and Commercial