LAW
LEGAL EAGLES SET TO SOAR
Continuity – Jacksons ’ managing partner Tony Wentworth hopes to build on the success of his predecessor , Jane Armitage .
Jacksons ’ new boss confident of bright future
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON PICTURE : TOM BANKS
He ’ s in charge of a “ team in transition ” – but one that ’ s in good shape to flourish .
When , on July 1 2021 , Tony Wentworth took over from Jane Armitage as managing partner at Jacksons Law Firm , he might have hoped for a less turbulent time in which to do it .
With many aspects of business still in a state of flux after a succession of Covid lockdowns , it hasn ’ t been the most straightforward of starts . However , with things getting back to normal , Tony is looking forward to leading Jacksons , the firm he has been with since 1986 , more recently as head of corporate and commercial , to continued success .
He told Tees Business : “ Because of the way the world is , it ’ s been a bit of a juggling act . It ’ s what football managers would call a team in transition , but it should soon settle down .
“ I ’ m going to be splitting my work between the managing partner role and the fee-earning role , although the aim is to have two-thirds of the former and onethird of the latter .”
More than 60 people are employed at the firm ’ s head office at Preston Farm in Stockton and Tony sees his new role as continuing his predecessor ’ s good work .
He said : “ I ’ m not going to rip up a load of stuff just so I can stamp my mark on it when what ’ s there is already working well .
“ I guess my role is to steer and coordinate the strategic direction of the firm , which involves pulling together the input of all sorts of talented people .
“ In terms of what we do , there ’ s no radical change of direction planned . It ’ s more a question of building on what we ’ ve already got .”
Enthused by the young talent in the team , Tony says Jacksons is rightly “ fixed and focused on the next generation .”
He said : “ We ’ ve got some really good younger people who are much more focused on the medium- to long-term future now .
“ When I became a partner in the mid-1990s , there were half of a dozen partners and we had to call them all by their surnames – Mr This , Mr That . The day I became a partner , the senior partner told me , ‘ Congratulations , you can now call me Brian .’ Thankfully , that ’ s all changed !”
He sees his as a “ sort of a puppeteer role – ensuring all the strings are pulled together so everything works as it should .” And with Jane in a consultancy role , there ’ s a valuable element of continuity .
Deciding on the division of office and homeworking is a key task – but Tony knows which ways he ’ s leaning . He explained : “ If you ’ re all remote working , how do you get new people into the profession and properly trained up to be the lawyers and support staff of the future if they ’ re not sitting alongside people day in day out who they can learn from ?
“ We have to give the next generation the opportunities we had when we were their age .
“ When you come into professional life , you don ’ t sit and read manuals to learn how to do it . You sit next to people who know how to do it and you watch , absorb and learn .”
He ’ s also hugely encouraged by the opportunities offered by the likes of the Teesworks site and the freeport .
He said : “ For the first time in a long time , we ’ re a region people are turning their gaze towards rather than turning their backs on , and that creates opportunities for all of us .”
And when it ’ s his turn to hand over the reins , what sort of Jacksons does he want to be leaving behind ? “ Jane has handed over to me a larger , more successful , profitable and effectively run organisation than the one she took over , and my ambition is to improve even further on that .”
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