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Talent – Louise Duffy with Lauryn Hellewell, who qualified to become a member of the team through the North East Solicitor Apprenticeship scheme.
“ The team has good approachability, the ability to explain complex legal documents in layman’ s terms. There are never any issues with being able to make contact, and they are always quick to respond. We always felt we were made a priority.”
Legal 500 UK, client quote
Louise is proud of the project and the working relationship with the client:“ It was an enjoyable project to work on, and we received such positive feedback from the Wilton team, particularly on our ability to provide key strategic advice in a very short timeframe.
“ We’ re continuing to support the business with its ongoing strategic property and funding needs.”
But Louise is keen to stress that it’ s not just larger businesses that can benefit from Muckle’ s support.
“ It doesn’ t matter whether you’ re a small start-up or a large, established company. When it comes to financial legal advice, we can help. We’ re recognised for being responsive, approachable and for getting transactions done quickly.
“ These attributes, along with the team’ s in-depth understanding of the Teesside landscape and exceptional technical knowledge, are key reasons clients of all sizes and industries keep coming back to us.”
Specialist insolvency advice Alongside its strong banking and finance offering, the team is also uniquely positioned to advise clients from a restructuring and insolvency perspective.
The team benefits from the expertise of insolvency specialist Kelly Jordan, who rejoined Muckle in 2024 to advise companies, banks and other lenders on a wide range of insolvency and restructuring issues.
Kelly has more than 20 years of experience in insolvency law, and is also the North-East chair of R3, the UK’ s insolvency and restructuring trade body.
Louise says:“ Kelly specialises in noncontentious advisory and transactional work, such as advising lenders on the validity and enforceability of their security and acting on numerous pre-pack administrations.
“ She also advises directors on their duties if their business runs into trouble and is at risk of insolvency. All of this adds even more value to our team’ s offering.”
Growing to meet clients’ needs After Kelly’ s reappointment, the banking and restructuring team was further bolstered in July by the recruitment of newly qualified banking solicitor Lauryn Hellewell.
Originally from Darlington, Lauryn was part of the first cohort to study at Northumbria University through the North- East Solicitor Apprenticeship( NESA) scheme, which combines traditional study with on-the-job training over six years.
Louise is confident that these appointments, together with the recent recruitment of real estate partner Rachel List, who supports the firm’ s real estate finance offering in Teesside, have further strengthened the team’ s influence in Teesside.
She says:“ Now we’ re in an even stronger position to advise companies on their financial needs, whether that’ s raising funds for their future growth or offering fast, proactive advice to businesses facing financial difficulties, creditor clients facing customer insolvency or companies acquiring distressed businesses.”
Full-service support Louise knows the team can draw on expertise across the firm to help achieve clients’ goals.
She says:“ We don’ t operate in isolation. For example, we work with our real estate team on property finance transactions – as we did with Wilton – and with our corporate team on private equity investments, disposals and acquisitions and listed company work.
“ We’ re fully committed to growing our presence in Teesside and continuing our philosophy of being a trusted advisor that acts as an extension of our clients’ teams. Maintaining high levels of service is really important to us and we’ ll continue to deliver what our clients want, on time and within budget.”
To learn more about Muckle, visit muckle-llp. com
The voice of business in the Tees region | 115