In June, TeamCB walked a colossal ten marathons in a single day, raising a massive £10,000 for the children’s bereavement charity Jigsaw South East. This figure was matched our equity partners, resulting in a grand total of £20,000 heading to Jigsaw.
We are so proud of every single member of our team who stepped up to take on this challenge, as well as those who supported it. Our time working with Jigsaw South East as our chosen charity is now drawing to a close and we will be announcing which charity we’ll be supporting for the next two years very soon.
As ever, our community involvement expands beyond our chosen charity. In September, we supported the Walk Tonbridge Festival for a fifth year running and were thrilled when James Pavlou’s hard work saw the event raise £20,000 for charity, with £11,589 heading to local foodbank, Sustain. A huge well done to Partner Sarah Strong, who completed her fifth Walk Tonbridge Marathon and to Senior Associate, Katie Hilsdon, for organising this mammoth event, alongside James.
Our sponsorship of the equestrian teams at both Uplands Academy in Wadhurst and Beacon Academy in Crowborough (both part of The MARK Education Trust) continued in 2025. We also now provide sessions for older people in association with Age UK Tunbridge Wells. Partner Katie Gillam goes into its centre each month, to provide vital information on Wills and LPAs etc, while we sponsored the charity’s nationwide initiative, Silver Sunday.
In May, the Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival welcomed myriad incredible writers to our town and Victoria Sampson was thrilled to again be asked to interview one of the authors. This time, she talked to Nikki May about her wonderful book, This Motherless Land, inspired by Jane Austin’s Mansfield Park.
As ever, the 3Ps remain at the centre of our life at CooperBurnett - people, people and ‘profit’. Our people are exceptional when it comes to supporting our charity and community endeavours and we are proud that TeamCB continued to thrive during 2025. The beginning of the year saw Ayla Clissold from our Residential Property team and Katie Hancock from Private Client promoted to Senior Associate; while Peggy Hendley, who had been with us for five years, moved into our Private Client team as a Paralegal.
TeamCB also welcomed Molly Mackay as Associate Solicitor in our Corporate and Employment teams in the summer, while Shannen Sinclair joined us more recently, as a Senior Associate in Property Litigation. We also celebrated Courtney Magnus qualifying as a Solicitor; she is continuing her career with CooperBurnett in our Private Client team.
We remain proud of how people join TeamCB and build their careers here. In 2026, Partner Tom Lumsden will be marking 20 years with us, while Victoria Sampson will have been part of our firm for three decades!
Over the past year, we have continued to ask team members what makes CooperBurnett a great place to work as part of our series of Table Talk articles. Interviewed during this year were Partner Anna Dunn; Senior Associates Ayla Clissold, Katie Hancock and Katie Hilsdon; Associate Solicitors Natalie Lai and Molly Mackay; Solicitor Imogen Fleur; and Trainee Solicitors, Joshua Hayes and Iola Cameron.
A recent highlight for us at CooperBurnett is being ranked in Chambers 2026. CooperBurnett is listed in Real Estate for the South and Corporate/M&A: SME/Owner-managed businesses for the South. In addition, Construction Partner, David Brown, is recognised for the first time, alongside Victoria Sampson and Russell Brinkhurst, Partners in the Corporate and Commercial team. In the 2026 edition of Legal 500, our Corporate and Commercial team is ranked, once again, in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
As a firm, we have remained committed to our local professional community. During the year Solicitor, Imogen Fleur, finished her tenure as President of Kent Junior Lawyers Division (JLD), after two years in the post; while we are represented currently on the board at the Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge & District Law Society by Partner, Gemma Gillespie.
During the year, CooperBurnett remained a committed member of the Tunbridge Wells-wide corporate environmental initiative, Amplifi, with Gemma Gillespie driving this forward for us; and, as team, we have continued to be an active member of Sevenoaks District Chamber of Commerce. We supported the Chamber in March, as co-sponsor of its breakfast (along with Charles Stanley) ahead of the West Kent Expo, where we also had a stand. Then, in November, we were excited to be an exhibitor at the busy Tunbridge Wells Business Show.
Victoria Sampson is continuing to co-host the Tunbridge Wells business forum, enTWine, which recently celebrated its fifth birthday; while both Joseph Oates and Victoria Sampson share a position on the board of Royal Tunbridge Wells Together BID, which does so much to support businesses in our town.
As a firm, we sponsored the ‘Large Business’ categories at both the Tunbridge Wells Business Awards and the Tonbridge Business Awards, organised by Jess Gibson from the TN Card, while Joseph Oates was proud to be one of the judges at the Tonbridge event. Congratulations to all the runners-up and finalists - we are thrilled to be part of such a thriving business community!
Recently, we also sponsored the ‘Large Business’ category at the Tunbridge Wells Business Magazine Awards, while Victoria Sampson was honoured to be a finalist in the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ category.
We’ve enjoyed writing our regular column in the Tunbridge Wells Business Magazine and thank the team there for regularly sharing our news. A highlight of the year was August, when Head of Residential Property, Jennifer Irving, was on the magazine’s front cover (along with an article outlining her long career with TeamCB and the strength of our fabulous Residential Property team).
In addition to writing articles, we enjoy sharing knowledge with the wider community. For example, in March Partner, Gemma Gillespie, and Associate Solicitor, Melissa Gire, from our Family & Matrimonial team hosted a workshop about Prenuptial Agreements for local professionals and contacts.
We are grateful that our clients have remained loyal to us; our workload has been very ‘active’ across all our practice areas, with a significant pipeline of work already in place for 2026. The recent Budget caused concerns but we are continuing to work alongside all our clients as we plot a safe course together through 2026.
We do hope that you are feeling as positive as you can in terms of your business, personal goals and aspirations for this New Year. As ever, TeamCB looks forward to supporting you in any way we can. Happy New Year!
Joseph Oates and Victoria Sampson
