Karin Holt

“I joined Matthew Arnold & Baldwin as a Secretary straight from school, back in 1976. I had done work experience at another law firm and knew that I wanted to work in the legal profession. I was impressed with John Baldwin who interviewed me and took the job. I started working with Richard Hanney who is still one of the Partners in the firm and over the years he and John Baldwin both encouraged me in my career, giving me more and more responsibility.

Over the next ten years, I had three children and returned to work each time on a part-time basis working in different departments and gaining lots of experience in all the different aspects of the firm. When my last child was born I decided I wanted to become qualified and began studying through the Legal Executive route, which usually takes ten years. However I managed to fit in two sets of exams each year, meaning I actually qualified in five years. Then when my youngest daughter started school, I came back to the firm on a full-time basis and became a Trainee Solicitor.

Over the next few years, whilst working  in the Residential Property Department I completed my remaining studies,  including the Legal Practice Course.  As I already had so many years legal experience I was then able to qualify as a solicitor straight away. In January 1998 I was promoted to Associate and this was quickly followed by my promotion to Partner in 1999.

In the early 1990′s I noticed that there were a lot of new properties being erected in the area and I decided that I would like to specialise in new homes and gain a reputation for being successful in doing so in this market.  Matthew Arnold & Baldwin motivated me to target the developers concerned and I managed to pick up a fair amount of business from them. By setting up processes, computer systems and being efficient and organised we quickly became known as a firm who could perform within the required time frames set by developers and which buyers wished to achieve to obtain their chosen properties. The New Homes Team was born. Since then this team has gone from strength to strength and now not only acts for buyers from the developers but also the developers themselves, dealing with acquisitions and associated work including plot sales, and not just locally but all over the country. It just shows what can be done with hard work, determination and support!

I feel I have been here in the Matthew Arnold & Baldwin family forever. We have always had a reciprocal arrangement; the firm allowed me to work part-time when the children were young and encouraged me to evolve from a secretary to a solicitor and I always helped them out whenever they required assistance in any department. I can’t imagine being anywhere else!”