Lawyers & heir hunters honoured at the 2024 ‘Probies’

Finders International scooped Best Probate Research Firm at the awards, presented by broadcaster Kate Garraway (pictured left), at a ceremony in London this month. Judges commented on Finders International’s impressive growth and relationships with local authorities around the UK.

Irwin Mitchell won Best Probate Law Firm: National, while Circe Law won Best Probate Law Firm: Boutique, Fosters Solicitors won Best Probate Law Firm: Regional and Umar Shaikh, of Anthony Gold Solicitors, won Young Will and Probate Professional of the Year.

Pickerings Solicitors won twice, with Emma Harrison scooping Best Probate Lawyer of the Year while Lucy Cooling took home the Best Will Writer of the Year accolade.

Morr & Co won Best Contentious Probate Provider, Brachers won Best Estate Planning Team and Thomson Snell & Passmore won Best Will Writing Firm.

Other winners included art historian Eléonore Delabre, of French probate research firm, ADD Associes, who won the Best Story of Human Interest category for her work in the restitution of more than 20 pieces from the Armand Dorville collection, which was confiscated by the Nazis in 1942.  They include the works of Pissarro, Vuillard and Renoir.

The Probies also featured the launch of Probate.Auction, the UK’s first exclusive probate property auction platform.

Geoffrey Odds, chair of the International Association of Professional Probate Researchers (IAPPR), said: ‘The Probies has evolved to becoming a formidable force not only in the UK but globally because of the amount of cross border co-operation that this industry needs to thrive, from both legal, probate research but also the multitude of service providers who support their operations.’

A full list of Probies winners can be found here.