Our Team

Linda Ahern works in our Kingswood office, and is a Legal Executive dealing with wills, trust and Probate matters. She worked for Ledbury Merry initially. She is very keen on horses, and would (probably) like nothing more than to ride away for a day or two!

Cristina Serna-Benezet has studied law in Spain, and has now qualified as an English Solicitor, currently working in our Company/Commercial  Department. She has not yet got acclimatised to the English weather and would really like us to open up a branch office somewhere warmer.

Sharon Boothby was born and raised in Africa, and started her probate career at the High Court of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in November, 1978. She left the civil service, where she became Assistant Master of the High Court in 1982. After a spell in a large Bank, she joined a long established firm of solicitors in Bulawayo. She left them in 1999, with much regret, to join her husband in England. She is getting used to the weather, and has one young daughter. She deals the administration of estates.

John Dando is a Licensed Conveyancer, based in Kingswood. He has extensive knowledge of the area, but loves nothing more than escaping to engage in rallies at the weekends! As if conveyancing wasn’t exciting enough!

Claire Davis is an Associate in our Trust and Probate Department at Brislington, having recently joined us.

Nick Duff is an Associate in our Brislington office and undertakes all types fo conveyancing, both for Residential and Business clients, including developers.

Mark Evans is a Trainee, and at the same time is a Notary, and hopes one day to become a Member of the Worshipful Company of Scriveners.

Sue Geleit works as an Associate in our Family/Litigation department in both Kingswood and Clifton. She came to the profession after a number of years in the hotel business, and after bringing up her family, who all are now successfully involved with Catering! We are not sure when they will also decide to become lawyers!

Nicola Giles  is a Conveyancing Manager in our Clifton Office, having spent her recent career one of the larger practices. She enjoys walking her two rather splenid and soppy dogs.

Martin Goodall is a Consultant  specialising in Town and Country Planning, he is a Legal Associate of the RTPI. He has worked extensively in both Local Government and Private Practice.

Clive Johnson is an Associate in our Commercial Department and comes to us with many years of experience both in the Legal department of a major multinational company and then in Private Practice. He is relieved not to be related to anyone else in the firm.

Tim Johnson is one of the partners in the firm, has been qualified for rather longer than he cares to remember, having spent some years in industry before returning to private practice. He deals primarily in commercial matters, with a particular interest in copyright, and other forms of intellectual property exploitation. He speaks French. He plays Real Tennis and his ambition is to make sure that his handicap is always lower than his age! He has taken to bringing his rather large, but very docile, dog in to work.

Patricia Leith-Phillips (prefers Pattie) has accumulated 34 years experience as a residential Conveyancer in places such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cumbria, Shropshire and latterly Bristol. She has run a Guest house in Derbyshire which also had an antique shop in the grounds, the house was originally three cottages dating from the 16th Century and had been a pub and a post office and had it's very own ghost which was only seen by women.She is very proud of being a Scotswoman and her hobbies include not finishing the crossword and falling asleep before the end of the movies.

Kathryn Richards is a solicitor in our Tust and Probate Department, based in Clifton. She is training to become a member of STEP, and in her spare time is one of the select and doughty race of female coxes.

Sarah McMurchie is a solicitor who specialises in Immigration Law. Having worked for the Solicitors Indemnity Fund Sarah keeps us on our toes so that we comply with all the professional rules and regulations which cover the Legal Profession.


Sue Morgan is an Associate  working in our Kingswood office, specialising in Family and Matrimonial work, and also handling an increasing amount of contested Probate disputes. She has come to the law after an early and promising start with a musical career, she plays the violin amongst other instruments.

Chris Payne is an Associate in our Brislington Office and covers a wide range of work for both Private clients and small and medium sized businesses.

James Raskin is a Consultant with the firm in our Kingswood office, which still bears his name. He undertakes commercial work and has the added ability to speak a number of languages, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek and now Polish!

Gloria Ryden is a Consultant who specialises in Trusts, Probate, Wills, Personal Tax Planning and Court of Protection Work. She is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and also one of a rare breed nowadays, a Notary Public. In her spare time, as a complete break from the serious stuff, Gloria is a keen dinghy sailor.

John Todd is the litigation Partner of the firm, and has been handling litigation matters since he qualified in 1971 (hopefully not the same ones!) He specialises in Family Law, and has done so for as long as he can remember. He is on the Law Society Family Panel and spent eleven years as a Deputy District Judge. John is an active member of a number of choirs although thankfully he doesn’t practice in the office!

Seiw Li Yap is a Solicitor in our commercial  property department specialising in commercial transactions, based in our Clifton office. Her clients range from retail through business and industrial clients to developers. Seiw speaks fluent Mandarin.