PRESS RELEASE – MARCH 2022
Leading Yorkshire Law firm Ison Harrison has promoted four of its lawyers to partner across its network of Yorkshire offices.
The four newly promoted partners are Erin Johnston, Geraldine Levison, Dhiran Mistry and Nigel Monaghan.
The new round of promotions follow Ison Harrison’s recent transition to becoming entirely employee-owned after the three shareholder directors agreed to sell the business to an Employee Ownership Trust.
Erin Johnston has been a solicitor with Ison Harrison for three years having qualified in 2013. Based at both Otley and Chapel Allerton branches, Erin specialises in all types of Private Client work including wills, probate, court of protection and trust matters.
Experienced commercial property solicitor Geraldine Levison has been with the firm for eight years and is branch manager at the Chapel Allerton office. Geraldine, a legal practitioner with 18 years’ experience, specialises in acquisitions, disposals and leasebacks for both retail outlets and industrial offices. She is also highly experienced in dealing with Landlord and Tenant issues, commercial re-financing and transfer of leasehold interests.
Commercial solicitor Dhiran Mistry joined Ison Harrison in 2018, having previously worked for large law firms in Leeds. He assists with all aspects of commercial and residential property, including acting for a range of developers in securing multi-site acquisitions and development refinance. Dhiran has a varied number of high-net-worth loyal clients nationally who instruct him regularly.
Specialising in family law and based at the firm’s Pudsey office, Nigel Monaghan is a solicitor with over 36 years legal experience. Nigel originally joined Ison Harrison’s Garforth office in November 2016 before moving to the Pudsey branch when it first opened in January 2017, to offer his Private Family law expertise to the town. Whilst specialising now solely in family work, Nigel has years of experience in other litigation matters and prosecuted on behalf of the RSPCA (animal cruelty cases) for 15 years in Bradford and surrounding Courts.
Ison Harrison, which has a network of sixteen offices throughout the region, was founded in 1978. Forty-three years later it now employs more than 240 staff across Yorkshire and offers the broadest suite of legal services in the region.
Commenting on the promotions, Jonathan Wearing, managing director said:
“This is the best possible way to kick off 2022 with the promotions coming hot on the heels of the firm becoming entirely employee-owned earlier this month. I’m very happy to see these promotions following an already momentous beginning to the year for the business. The individual and collective contributions to the firm from the four new partners cannot be underestimated and they are all richly deserved. Our growth has been primarily driven through the development of an extensive branch network with residential property, wills and probate and family work in particular taking the lead. The firm has always had a strong property work profile and now boasts one of the largest specialist teams in the country in acting for purchasers of new build homes. The past two years have seen a focus on diversification by expanding our commercial offering substantially, to include corporate, litigation, employment and commercial property for an ever-growing commercial client base.”
The firm has an annual turnover of £16 million and represents around 20,000 clients each year, the majority of whom live in the region. Over the years, it has represented clients in many high-profile cases including several families at the inquest of those who died in the Hillsborough disaster.
Added Jonathan Wearing:
“As a forward thinking, totally progressive law firm, Ison Harrison is committed to recruiting and retaining the very best people in the legal profession. Ensuring clients have the greatest access to legal expertise remains a key objective for us and we’re delighted to have got 2022 underway by adding four new partners to the team.”
Ison Harrison is the most accredited law firm in Yorkshire, with 13 Law Society accreditations including Conveyancing Quality, Clinical Negligence, Children Law, Family Law, Immigration & Asylum, and SRA Higher Courts Rights – civil and criminal.