Former head of legal at county council makes switch to private practice

Nina Ellement, formerly head of legal at Cumbria County Council and a childcare specialist, has joined Vincents Solicitors in Preston.

A senior solicitor with more than 20 years’ experience of childcare proceedings, Ellement has joined the specialist childcare team within the firm’s family law department.

Prior to being appointed legal lead at Cumbria in 2020, she spent 15 years at St Helens Council working exclusively on childcare cases for the local authority.

Vincents said she would now bring that experience to her work assisting local families facing care proceedings via Vincents’ three Childcare Legal Aid contracts in Preston, Blackpool and Chorley.

Ellement said: “I am excited to be back working directly with families and helping parents at risk of losing their children to access the support they need to turn their lives around.

“Having worked on both sides of these cases I’ve seen the most successful outcomes for children and their families are when there’s good legal advice from the outset, from the moment the council notifies parents about pre-proceedings."

Mark Mosley, head of the family law department at Vincents Solicitors, said: “Nina is an extremely knowledgeable and compassionate childcare legal practitioner whose expertise in this field is second to none. Her in-depth local authority experience will provide great benefit to our family clients and she is an extremely welcome addition to our growing childcare team.”