Stepping up - Peter Robinson of Jacksons Law Firm .
SUCCESSION PLAN
Experienced solicitor takes up lead corporate role with law firm
When Peter Robinson played with his brothers as a young boy , building camps in the woods and climbing the trees of Dalton-le-Dale , a small hamlet between Seaham and Murton , the world of work and careers was one he didn ’ t really contemplate in those carefree days of childhood .
Peter is from a teaching family , with his parents , aunts and uncles all teachers and his maternal grandfather a schoolmaster . His dad ’ s father , however , was head accountant at Murton Colliery , the predestined career for many in those days was working down the pit .
“ I have to say I didn ’ t have a strong idea of what I wanted to do when I was younger and was considering a history degree ,” Peter recalls .
“ I did know I wanted to keep my options open as long as possible , though . I reckoned that a law degree would exercise my brain just as much as history but give me a wider career choice , so I opted for that . Doing work placements while doing my degree made me realise I liked the professional side of it and so I decided I would pursue that . Not exactly a calling , but a deliberate , considered decision .”
More than 25 years ’ experience working for leading corporate firms on Tyneside and Yorkshire have followed , gaining a huge amount of experience on a wide variety of deals and in a wide variety of sectors . He also had a period working for a boutique venture capitalist , learning the “ inside track ”, and running his own business before returning to a regional firm in 2016 as a corporate partner .
Peter has now taken over as head of corporate and commercial at Jacksons from Tony Wentworth , who has stepped into the role of managing partner following Jane Armitage ’ s decision to retire from the partnership .
“ When Tony and Jane approached me about the opportunity , I was interested and quite excited about the role ,” said Peter .
“ It was clear to me that Jacksons had worked on their culture , business model and succession planning over the past few years and had built a partnership of people with different professional backgrounds and different ideas . It seemed a place where new approaches would be listened to .
“ I have a lot of business experience , and I have seen what works and what doesn ’ t work in private practice . I liked the idea of the new challenge and was attracted to a firm which embraces and listens to new ideas .”
Peter ’ s expertise lies in working closely with clients to become their trusted advisor , to be their commercial sounding board and part of their internal commercial team . He specialises in company and business sales , acquisitions , investment and private equity and shareholder arrangements generally , among other things , and he particularly enjoys working with owner managed businesses and businesses starting up . “ I like to roll up my sleeves and understand a client ’ s needs , to get down in the ditches and fight for them if they need me to , or to get the deal done with a minimum of fuss and noise if they want that ”. Peter adds with a smile : “ I started up my own business too and learnt a lot of from that – it gave me first-hand experience of what I ’ d been advising clients on for years !
“ The corporate team at Jacksons has been helping regional and national businesses for many years . It ’ s a case of building upon that base , developing the corporate service offering and actually letting people know what we can do , and what we already do ."
For further information about Jacksons Law Firm , visit www . jacksons-law . com .
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