Modern Law Magazine Issue 67

10 MINS WITH
Heather
Gaffney
Q
What
Minutes With...
is your most memorable achievement
whilst working in your current role?
My current role, as Head of Private Wealth, has already brought a
few achievements. When the department evolved from Residential
Property to Private Wealth it incorporated Private Client, and I had
to explore an area of law that I wasn’t fully familiar with. This meant
re-training, educating myself and learning. I’m proud that I’ve done
this alongside my day-to-day job and feel that I have improved and
expanded my knowledge and management skill set. The private
client department itself has grown hugely over the past 6 months in
terms of both clients and the type of work we are seeing within the
department, and it’s been really rewarding to see.
QWWhat has been the most valuable piece of
advice you’ve ever been given?
Never stop learning. Nobody knows everything. I think it’s
dangerous when people believe they are an expert in something –
whether you’ve been learning about it for one year or 25 years, things
are always changing and there are always new things to learn and
grasp an understanding of. The reason I chose a career in law is that I
wanted to be constantly learning and to always be pushing myself. I
feel that I do this in both my role as a lawyer and as a director/head
of department.
QWhat has been the key positive or negative
impact of change in your area of the market?
I have found residential property to be a particularly challenging
area of the market to work within since the pandemic. There have
been changes to legislation or new pieces of legislation coming into
force that change things overnight (such as changes to Stamp Duty
rates) or that we aren’t given the support or time to learn about as
quickly as we need to (such as the introduction of the Building Safety
Act 2022). Recent economical changes have put more pressure on
conveyancers to complete matters within timeframes that mean
clients aren’t going to be exposed to higher rates of interest on their
mortgages. On the flip side of this, I do think huge improvements
have been made to technology during the last few years – the Land
Registry have made it simpler to submit an application through
an online application process, client ID can now be uploaded and
verified via an app, and property search results appear to be coming
back more speedily. As a firm, we have made huge improvements
and changes to our case management system. Overall, these
benefits create a more streamlined process.
“Never stop learning.
Nobody knows everything.”
Q
If
you were not in your current position, what
would you like to be doing?
If I wasn’t a lawyer, I think I would have gone into something
completely different and much more creative, such as floristry.
QWhat three items would you put on display in
a museum of your life and why?
Models of the people most important to me – who have supported
me, made me believe I can do anything or for who I constantly strive
to do better for – my son, my husband and my parents.
QWhat three guests would you invite to a
dinner party?
I am extremely proud of being a woman in business, so I think I
would invite strong and influential woman to tell me their stories.
The three guests I would invite to a dinner party would be Emmeline
Pankhurst, Jane Austin and Michelle Obama.
Heather Gaffney,
Head of Private Wealth,
Lewis Denley
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