Richard Port
Family law partner at George Green Solicitors
Richard Port, family law partner at West Midlands firm George Green Solicitors, is the current president of Birmingham Law Society, and in 2022 was awarded an MBE for Legal Services to victims of domestic abuse. He shares an insight into his working life with The Brief.
I joined George Green Solicitors in 2021, and became a partner here a year later. The firm has three offices: Cradley Heath, where I am based, Sutton Coldfield and Wolverhampton.
I run the Cradley Heath family practice alongside three colleagues: solicitor Jane Williams, chartered legal executive Melanie Young and paralegal Lily Smalley. Overall, the George Green family team is 11-strong across our three offices, and is led by Mark Vandaele, who is based in Wolverhampton.
Although we are split across three locations, we collaborate closely on many matters. We all work together as one big firm, and have an open-door policy not just between offices but also between departments.
If I have a question about another aspect of law, for example corporate or private client, then I’m able to speak to someone about it and get an expert view – and they will do the same and speak to me if they have a client who has a family issue.
Culture of trust
I think in some firms there is an unspoken divide between partners and the rest of the team, with more junior lawyers feeling they can’t look the partners in the eye. The culture at George Green is nothing like that: we are all on the same wavelength and no-one is worried about feeling intimidated when they talk to a partner.
Although I’m based at the Cradley Heath office, as a firm we have policies around flexible working but I trust my team, and that they will get their work done.
George Green prioritise making life as easy as possible for colleagues, so they don’t make you have to fight for a parking space or trek across the Himalayas to get to the office!
Domestic abuse practice
The family team handle a range of matters, including child arrangements, prenuptial agreements and divorce finances. My specialism, though, is matters relating to domestic abuse.
Day-to-day, this involves deal with things like non-molestation orders and urgent applications. Most importantly, though, I make sure that clients are represented properly.
The problem you have with perpetrators is that they fight. I’m there to fight back.
It’s a complex area of law and often not black and white. You might have a dogmatic view that there is a clear perpetrator and a clear victim but, until you actually look below the surface, you don’t know.
I’ve had a few cases where the other side have claimed to be the victim and then, when we get all the evidence before us, it turns out that they were actually the perpetrator and have made threats to kill my client. They have then tried to create evidence pointing to their partner.
Litigation and mediation
These contested matters are where the courts can have difficulties, because they see a case for an hour or two and have to make a judgement call, but you can’t really do that in such a short timescale when you have two people who are both saying they’re victims.
This is why we have big delays in the courts. Hearings are being pushed further and further out to try to deal with these matters.
Domestic violence matters also don’t often lend themselves to mediation.
When the government was designing the reforms to mediation that came into force last year there was a concern that victims of domestic violence would be forced to go to mediation. I raised this issue and they then backtracked on that.
I’m not against mediation but I think that for the type of work I do it’s often not appropriate. Today, coincidentally, I have actually had one case where mediation has worked, but I have also seen cases where the other side has tried to use mediation as a weapon, saying our client has refused to engage in it, and using that as evidence of being unreasonable.
Mediation is a voluntary thing in these cases. It was never meant to be a weapon.
Birmingham Law Society
I have been on the council of Birmingham Law Society since 2020 and am its current president. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I want to share it with the membership, so during my year in office I’m trying to do things a bit differently and move the focus away from the presidency itself and onto the members.
I’m just here to steer the ship, and I want to make it clear that it’s the voices of the members that are important. That’s my theme for this year.
Members have some really interesting stories and are doing some really interesting work that’s helping a lot of people, so I want to make sure the focus is on them, and on the firms that are doing great work but don’t have the massive marketing budgets to shout about it.
Working on this year’s Birmingham Law Society Legal Awards was amazing. It was great to celebrate not just the winners but all of the shortlisted firms. Even if they didn’t win, everyone that was nominated should be really proud because the fact that they were put forward means that they have clearly made a change in someone’s life.
My work with the Law Society takes up a fair amount of my time but it never really feels like work because I collaborate with a great team there and I enjoy projects, which it mostly involves.
I also get the opportunity to attend events and talk to people who I would never in a million years get to talk to otherwise!
Heart of England Community Foundation
As well as Birmingham Law Society, I am a member of the board of trustees and chair of the grant-making panel at the Heart of England Community Foundation.
The Foundation is a grant-making body that receives donations then makes awards to other charities that need funds. I really enjoy my work with them.
It’s an incredible feeling to be able to sit down and in one day give away large sums with a great panel of respected individuals to different deserving charities.
Outside of work I would love to say that I’m a runner, a painter or have some other exciting pastimes. To be honest, though, after work I’ll either be busy with DIY or will wind down by playing video games or watching a film.
Visit
- Connect with Richard Port MBE via LinkedIn
