Celebrating 5 Years: Sort Legal Cardiff
24 Mar 2025
This year marks a significant milestone for Sort Legal Cardiff as it celebrates its 5-year Anniversary.
Since opening in 2020, the Cardiff office has played a vital role in Sort Legal’s continued growth. From strengthening our recruitment efforts to creating new opportunities for both experienced and aspiring conveyancing professionals, the branch has fostered a highly skilled and dynamic workforce. Over the years, our team has established strong relationships with all parties within a conveyancing chain, improving collaboration across all sectors and reinforcing our commitment to providing all clients with a smooth and efficient conveyancing journey.
To honour this achievement, we spoke with Rhodri Howells, Head of Legal Practice, to reflect on the past five years of the branch’s journey, discussing its achievements, challenges, and future plans.
What was the reason for Sort Legal’s expansion?
Our offices in Derby were already well established, having been opened in 2017, and in 2019, the decision was made to open a branch in Cardiff. Cardiff has become something of a centre for conveyancing talent with a number of large national firms having a presence there.
This has allowed us to develop our team by offering positions for both experienced case handers and for those at the start of their conveyancing journey.
What challenges has the Cardiff branch faced in the last five years?
I was first employed to open the Cardiff Branch and develop our offering here. Little did I know what was just around the corner…
I recall opening the doors to our new office and then, just a few days later, the first COVID lockdown was ordered.
Needless to say, that was a tremendously worrying time. Due to when I had moved employment, I fell between the cracks in the furlough scheme and I was concerned that Sort, having not much of a commitment to Cardiff as yet, may decide it was something they didn’t want to pursue.
I need not have worried, Sort remained committed to the Cardiff Project and for the first few months, The Cardiff office was my kitchen table. It was quite an experience learning the systems and procedure in those circumstances.
I printed a ‘Sort Legal, Wales Office’ sign that I put on the wall of my kitchen and that same piece of paper is now on the wall of the office serving as a reminder of the company’s commitment to the project though that tough time.
In due course we were able to put COVID behind us and start developing the office in earnest.
We started to recruit to the point where we took a lease of the office next door and knocked through to create a space twice as big.
How has the Cardiff branch contributed to Sort Legal’s overall success?
My aim when starting the office was to build long term relationships with staff. I’m hugely proud that we have 2 solicitors who came on board as paralegals, moved to trainee solicitors and eventually took qualified positions with us.
A number of our support staff are also on their way to qualification whether that be through CILEX or CLC routes.
Putting people on a route to gaining qualifications is something that Sort and I firmly believe in and needs to be at the centre of our plans going forward.
How has the Cardiff team grown, and what roles have they played in the branch’s success?
Our office has grown significantly since those early days and, in 2023 we brought Jennifer Finch on as a Director with oversight of the Cardiff. Her commitment developing a professional friendly environment has really taken the office to another level.
There are now 14 of us working from the Cardiff office and we are constantly looking for talented individuals to come and work with us.
What’s next for Sort Legal Cardiff?
The next chapter is starting with our office renovation scheduled to take place over the next couple of months. We are really looking forward to providing a fresh, modern and exciting environment for our staff.
The last 5 years have been a whirlwind and I can't wait to see what the next 5 have to offer.
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