Our People

Ensuring carers are visible and valued

It’s an unfortunate fact that many people in professional roles aren’t comfortable talking about their responsibilities as carers. We are working to change that at Charles Russell Speechlys by providing our own carer community with resources to make things more manageable, especially during recent turbulent times. We’re also working to better support our staff with caring responsibilities through our Carers Network, which offers a listening ear, the opportunity to network with other carers and access to a variety of sources of support.

This year we also held our first Carers Week, which focused on ‘Making Caring Visible and Valued’, with a range of events that aimed to increase our Firm’s understanding of the carer experience. Notably, a breakfast-time panel hosted by Nick Hurley brought together experts with first-hand knowledge of caring to offer their own stories and challenges. This included: Dr Jackie Gray, founder of The Carents Room; Kyro Brooks, co-founder of Mobilise, who spoke about the challenges of caring from a distance; and Pamela Aculey, author of the Just Like Me series of books for autistic children from diverse backgrounds.

We also heard from Senior Associate Katie Talbot, who talked bravely about her own caring responsibilities, the support she had received from Senior Partner Bart Peerless, and other Partners and colleagues, and the difference it had made to be able to have open conversations about balancing her work and home responsibilities. Acknowledging that carers also have to contend with some complex legal issues, Partner Sally Ashford led an informative session on wills and power of attorney gave us a succinct guide to what to do, when and how.

Providing expert access

A partnership with Martin Searle Solicitors and Frenkel Topping during Carers Week delivered a unique, collaborative Pro Bono ‘Ask the Experts’ legal session for Bromley Mencap – a charity that works with people with learning or physical disabilities. The session, led by Katie Talbot and Lauren Clarke, was designed to better equip the team of support workers at Bromley Mencap to respond to frequently asked questions from carers and parents. Matt Yule, Adult Support Services Manager at Bromley Mencap, described the session as “exceptionally informative, covering so many areas and topics which will help us massively to provide an even better service and support to those we assist in Bromley”.

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interactions. Our 2021 Carers Week activity had 414 interactions.

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