Nigel Priestley, Senior Partner at Ridley & Hall, has been shortlisted for the Jordan’s Award of Family Law Partner of the Year. This prestigious award, which is sponsored by Goldsmith Chambers in London recognises “the hard working commitment throughout the year of Family Lawyers as a whole”.

Commenting, Nigel Priestley said, “This is a tremendous honour. It has been a great year for the family team at Ridley & Hall. We are now recognised as one of the leading firms in England and Wales in providing advice both for family and friends carers and for families caught up with problems arising from adoption breakdown.

We have set up specialist sites – Grandparents Legal Centre and Adoption Legal Centre. We are representing clients currently from as far apart as Newcastle, Pontypridd and Cornwall. They come to us for the specialist advice that we can provide in these areas of law.

We have been involved in a number of successful court cases, two of which have been reported in the law reports.

There are many brilliant family lawyers in the country. I have looked at the names of those who have been shortlisted with me. They all work for firms with many branch offices. It is great that a Huddersfield-based, high street firm can be recognised in national awards.”

Nigel writes a column for Adoption UK. In 2010 he was the winner of the Solicitor of the Year in the Law Society Excellence Awards. In September he is taking part in a unique training course for judges in Uganda on children’s Law. He is also working with a High Court and District Judges from England to provide the first specialist training on how our courts deal with public and private law applications.