46th ILEX President Inaugurated

17 July 2009 pr038.09

Judith Gordon-Nichols, a Legal Executive lawyer with the Bristol offices of the national law firm, Beachcroft LLP has today (17 July) been inaugurated as the 46th President of the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX).

An ILEX Council Member for the South West, she has a particular interest in education and legal services reform within ILEX.

Judith is a Senior Legal Executive at Beachcroft where she handles property recovery claims. Previously, she handled Defendant personal injury claims and set up a successful motor recovery team, as well as supervising the small claims/fast track motor and property recoveries team.

She is a shining example of the ILEX ethos of providing an alternative route to a career in law for those without a university education.Judith left school at 16 and worked for a time in a number of clerical and secretarial jobs. Looking for a career change, she was inspired by her mother who was working as a legal secretary, her mother’s job sounding much more interesting than her own.

Following a move to the law firm Bevan Hancock as a legal secretary, she was encouraged to train to become a legal executive lawyer through ILEX. During her training she moved from a secretarial role to become a trainee legal executive. Judith finished her studies in 1989, becoming a qualified legal executive lawyer in 1991. She joined her present firm in 2002, and with their encouragement and support became an ILEX Council Member in 2004, deputy vice president in 2007 and vice president last year.

Away from her legal desk, Judith enjoys cooking, reading, travel, American television crime drama and spending time with her partner, family and friends.

“I believe I have a busy, challenging and interesting year ahead of me,” says Judith. “ILEX has been moving forward and changing at a breathtaking pace in the past few years. It is time to reflect on what we have achieved and take stock of where we are in developing the role of the legal executive.

“I want to focus my year on the membership. The views of all our members are vitally important as we shape the ILEX of the future and I want to hear directly from them. I will be talking to them, listening to their views and finding out what they want from ILEX. I also want to make progress on helping our members through better information and training so they are able to make the most of the career opportunities now available.”

Ends