Hilary Homer

What do you do?

I have two roles with the firm. As Practice Manager, I’m responsible for the administration side of things. Most of the time, I’m keeping the office ticking over so that our lawyers can concentrate on what they do best – developing relationships with our clients and delivering expert, business-focused legal advice. I also make sure that I stay up to date with current data protection stories to help me with compiling our newsletters and blogs.

My secondary role is as Legal Support Assistant, providing document production services to the team. Of course, our lawyers don’t delegate the legal advice itself, but where they think it appropriate, I edit and proofread documentation that they’ve drafted. In this way, we can provide a cost-effective way to help clients manage some of the more time-intensive compliance tasks, such as information-gathering for audits and data-mapping, and preparing documents. My experience as an editor of technical materials, combined with my post-GDPR Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection ( PC.dp ) qualification, is a major plus for this role.

Our team is friendly and supportive, plus the flexible working model is great for work/life balance. The work is challenging, but rewarding. It feels great to help move client matters along, whether that’s assisting with the onboarding process on the admin side or proofreading the client documentation itself.

Have you always worked in law?

Nope! I started out with a small art publisher before moving to one of the UK’s largest publishing firms, working in their educational division on the production side. However, as a longtime grammar geek and trained proofreader, I’d also freelanced as an editor and proofreader for various companies. I decided to specialise into this area with my day job, which led me to take a full-time role as Lead Editor for a company producing learning materials for major tech companies.

After becoming a mum, I worked part-time before moving back to freelance work and taking a regular role editing school assemblies for a UK publisher. At the same time, I took on an admin role for my local Beaver Scouts group, meeting Stephanie, who was also volunteering. When she and Ben offered me the role of Practice Manager at Pritchetts, I jumped at the chance.

Tell us about some of your career achievements.

Most recently, it would have to be securing my Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection (PC.dp) qualification , which involved hours of training and revision over the course of several months, all topped off with a rigorous three-hour exam, my first for some 20 years! I was extremely grateful to Stephanie and Ben for supporting my development by putting me forward for it. I now have an excellent grounding in data protection law at a practical level, which has helped me with my work on both client documentation and our newsletters and blogs.

During my publishing career, having finished copies of the books that you’ve worked on finally land on your desk is a definite high! Consistency is key when it comes to the use of language and I was proud to instigate the creation of an editorial style guide for one of my previous companies, writing the first draft and asking colleagues from across the company to contribute. We ended up with a detailed style guide that we could send out to freelancers to ensure consistency across all of our publications.

How do you like to relax?

After I’ve fulfilled work, school and family commitments, time to chill out is in pretty short supply, but holidays with the family are always a great way to relax. Our usual UK haunts are Cornwall and the Lake District, but now that the kids are getting older, we’re venturing further afield, most recently to Greece.

Closer to home, I love going to gigs when I can. My latest obsession is the Showhawk Duo, but U2, Massive Attack and Muse are also big favourites.

Expertise and accreditations

BA (Hons) Theology, University of Birmingham

Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection (PC.dp)