Partners at Reading-based law firm Boyes Turner have praised the contribution to the firm by Chris Branson, partner in the insolvency team, as he retires this week. Chris joined Boyes Turner in 1988.
Bill Gornall-King, partner, said, “Chris has played a very large and influential role in the development of Boyes Turner from the modest but young, dynamic and ambitious Reading law firm of the 1980s into the leading regional law firm that it is today. His legacy will be the firm’s top drawer insolvency practice and its national reputation.”
One of the insolvency reforms of the eighties was to introduce the regulation of the practice of insolvency. As a mark of professional standin, a number of lawyers applied to become Licensed Insolvency Practitioners and Chris was at the forefront, becoming an LIP in 1989. He became active in SPI (the Society of Practitioners of Insolvency) now known as R3, of which he has been an active supporter regionally. Chris also served on the Insolvency Court Users Committee for 14 years, following its establishment in 2001.
Recognition for Chris has also come in the legal directories’ write-ups of him and his team over the years. Chris is the only corporate recovery lawyer in the region to have been ranked as “Best in Class” for over 20 years by both Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession and The Legal 500. He has been highlighted in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame as an individual who has received constant praise by his clients for continued excellence. He is also ranked in Band 1 in Chambers UK – Restructuring/Insolvency: Personal Insolvency UK wide and is the only lawyer in the Thames Valley to be recognised in the top tier.
Bill added, “A tenacious litigator, Chris has that rare gift of putting his clients at ease and over the years most of his regular clients in the insolvency community have become his friends and remain so to this day; one became and is his wife, Julia. Other insolvency lawyers, bankers and barristers too have become friends and hold him in high esteem. His generosity and kindness are renowned as are his loyalty to friends and his wit. Chris has now decided to retire after a long and successful career and the strong team will remain under the excellent stewardship of Phil Smith who has been a partner for over 20 years.”
Chris first arrived in Reading in 1981 and soon began to establish his reputation as an insolvency lawyer. There are now very few insolvency practitioners in London and the South East for whom Chris has not acted over the past 39 years.
