City of Wolverhampton Council's legal department is celebrating major success at a prestigious national awards ceremony.

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Three council lawyers scooped gongs at the Lawyers in Local Government awards on Friday evening. The glitzy ceremony was held at the Rosewood Hotel in Central London and was hosted by television personality Clive Anderson.

Solicitor advocate Adam Sheen was crowned Litigation Lawyer of the Year. Solicitor Jessica Adeniran was named Placed Related Lawyer of the Year. Chartered legal executive David Cockfield was presented with Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) Lawyer of the Year.

Just 10 awards were given out on the night - so City of Wolverhampton Council was the star of the show walking away with 3 of them.

Director of Governance, Kevin O'Keefe, said he was bursting with pride at his team's outstanding success which comes after the department was awarded the coveted Lexcel accreditation last year which puts them in the top 13% of legal practices in the country.

He added: "I am tremendously proud of the team. We have a highly talented, dedicated and expert team here at City of Wolverhampton Council and our clean sweep of regional and national awards gives us an enviable reputation which will be of enormous importance as we now develop an external client base of public sector and third sector clients."

Councillor Paul Sweet, cabinet member for governance, said: "The team has done fantastically well, it puts City of Wolverhampton Council in the national spotlight and has cemented our reputation as having one of the leading local authority legal departments in the country."

Adam's award was in recognition of his work on securing a ground-breaking injunction banning car cruising in the Black Country. He said: "I am extremely privileged and humbled. I am pleased with the positive impact the injunction has made to date and delighted that the hard work of so many people that went into this project has been nationally recognised. I look forward to continuing to work hard with my colleagues in the council and partner agencies in our efforts to make a positive difference to the people we serve."

Jessica secured her award for the work she had done on major projects including the Interchange, council housing at Thompson Avenue and the West Midlands Combined Authority. She said: "As an employee of the City of Wolverhampton Council and an individual that has grown up in Wolverhampton, winning this award is a tremendous accolade. It is an achievement that has been made possible with the involvement and support of friends and colleagues here at the council. The award denotes many of the exciting opportunities that are taking place in and around Wolverhampton. I am very proud to be a part of these."

David was recognised for his work on developing a new system enabling the council to recover £500,000 of social care debt it was owed. He said: "The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives provides a career path into law which would not otherwise exist for students who have not attended university. Therefore, I was really honoured to be nominated, let alone shortlisted for this particular category. I've also been very lucky to work with some excellent officers in the council's adult social care team which has helped me enormously."

  • released: Tuesday 24 November, 2015