Bristol City Council lawyer wins Young Solicitor of the Year award

A lawyer at Bristol City Council has been named the Local Government Young Solicitor of the Year.

Sinead Willis received the accolade at the Solicitors in Local Government Weekend School at the University of Warwick.

Also shortlisted were Mia Agnew of Lewisham Council and Fiona Bateman of the London Borough of Brent.

The citations were as follows:

• Willis: negotiated the first local authority project to build a wind farm to enable her authority to save on its energy bill, promote green energy and raise revenue within a constrained timescale against a supplier who had never worked with the public sector before.
• Agnew: played a pivotal role in complex negotiation of a six-borough IT contract which achieved significant savings for the local authorities and single-handedly led on a recycling concession contract which realised £500,000 of income for her authority.
• Bateman: made a difference to her authority by developing an adult social care debt recovery project amounting to £7.2m. 

The Young Solicitor of the Year award, which is sponsored by law firm Trowers & Hamlins, has been running for nine years. It was set up to recognise the contribution local government solicitors make to their authorities and communities.