A young girl who as a child saw Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon in the rom-com Legally Blonde and decided she wanted to be a lawyer has won a place with one of North Wales’s leading law firms.
Emily Brayford, from Oakenholt, near Flint, has joined the property team at Swayne Johnson which has a base in Denbigh and branches in Llandudno, St Asaph, Ruthin and Tattenhall, near Chester.
It’s a dream come true for the 27-year-old Chester University graduate who spent over two years managing rental properties for a Flintshire estate agent while studying for her final exams.
Emily, originally from Stoke, said: “It looked such a glamorous lifestyle and even though it didn’t turn out to be quite like that the more I studied, the more I realised it was what I wanted to do.
“I always wanted to work in the area of property law and that’s handy now as my partner and I own our home and are looking build our own property portfolio.”
Emily gained her LLB Honours degree at Chester and then took a job with an estate agent managing rental properties in Flintshire and she said: “I worked for them for over two years while at the same time studying for my Masters.
“It was quite a demanding job but always very interesting – even down to sorting out a tenant’s plumbing issues on Boxing Day morning.
“I decided I wanted to get back into legal practice and worked as a legal assistant for a Liverpool law firm where I was promoted to paralegal but Swayne Johnson were always high on my list of possible employers.
“I wrote to them and came for an interview and was impressed. The people were helpful and welcoming and lived up to everything they offered me and they really involve themselves in charitable work in the community which is also important to me.
“I volunteer with a food poverty charity every Monday evening, collecting food and distributing it across Flintshire and Wrexham where so many families are now struggling with the cost of living.”
Emily started in the property department led by Michael Tree in Llandudno and continuing in the Ruthin branch, working in the residential property sector where her previous experience helped clinch her place.
She takes weekly dance classes and finds time to exercise her feisty little dachshund, Rocky, and enjoys rock music – partner Dave, a plumber, plays the drums in a band and she helps carry the kit: “Some of it is bigger than me,” says Emily who also tackles DIY and likes to travel.
Swayne Johnson Managing Director Sarah Noton said: “We’re delighted Emily has joined us and we are making more high calibre appointments as we continue to grow the business.
“We know that within Swayne Johnson we have lawyers with a wealth of experience in all aspects of legal work and that makes this a very good environment for those who join us.
“We offer a comprehensive range of services across a wide area of law and we have the kind of high-quality expertise that means clients don’t need to look to firms from outside the area for the legal skills they need.
“At Swayne Johnson we believe in building relationships with our clients and providing them with the reassurance that they’re dealing with people who know and understand them.”
