46th ILEX President Inaugurated
17 July 2009
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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