Gordons celebrates double shortlisting in Law Society Excellence Awards
Monday 10th August 2015
Yorkshire law firm Gordons has been shortlisted for two awards in a prestigious annual scheme organised by one of its sector’s leading professional bodies.
Partner Victoria Davey is a finalist in the Woman Lawyer of the Year category in The Law Society Excellence Awards. The firm has also been shortlisted in the scheme’s Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion category for its ground-breaking apprenticeship programme.
Ms Davey’s achievement means she is recognised by The Law Society as one of the top five women lawyers in England and Wales. In addition, she is the only finalist in the category from a firm with a presence in the north of England.
The most senior woman in Gordons’ 170-year history, Ms Davey is a member of the firm’s three-partner executive board and its operations director, as well as being one of Britain’s most experienced intervention lawyers.
The award entry focused on Ms Davey’s status as a role model for, and significant mentor of, other women at Gordons and in the wider business community. She has trained and developed numerous colleagues who arrived as paralegals and have now qualified as chartered legal executives and solicitors.
The entry contained numerous testimonials from women Ms Davey has inspired, encouraged, supported and championed.
Gordons’ apprenticeship scheme was the first of its kind in the legal sector when it was launched in 2011. Already a multiple award winner, the programme admits entrants each September and now includes 11 youngsters.
The scheme is enhancing social mobility by offering careers as lawyers to bright, determined school-leavers who are eager to kick-start their careers without incurring the time and expense of the traditional university route.
Gordons’ apprentices train as chartered legal executive lawyers, to the maximum level six – honours degree equivalent – rather than the lower grades offered by most other schemes, which means their career progression is potentially unlimited.
Commenting on the shortlistings, Paul Ayre, managing partner, Gordons, said: “We’re very proud of this double recognition by The Law Society. Victoria is pivotal to our continued success. She adopts a variety of key roles, all of which she carries out successfully and with a smile on her face. Perhaps her most significant contribution, though, is the encouragement and inspiration she provides for other women at all levels of the business.
“We’re very proud too of our pioneering apprenticeship scheme and particularly the outstanding young people within it. They have improved our organisation in so many ways, including through making an ever-increasing contribution to our business success. I have no doubt many of them will enjoy outstanding careers in the profession.”
The Law Society Excellence Award winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Hilton Hotel, in London’s Park Lane, on 22 October.