Solicitor celebrates two decades of helping others

Solicitor Michelle Bowyer is celebrating her 20th anniversary in the legal profession.

Michelle (42) who is married with a three year old daughter, is one of Bevirs’ family law experts – part of a team which is one of the largest of its kind in the south west.

She began practising in 1996 and covers all aspects of family law, specialising in the financial issues arising from divorce.

Michelle grew up in Cricklade, Wiltshire and along with her twin brother Paul and later went to Southampton University – the first generation of their family to go into higher education. She studied business and law.

“I knew at the age of 14, I wanted to be a lawyer. What motivated me was when I went to a careers day organised by my school and I met a solicitor who told me I was too young to discuss a career in law. I was so incensed, I went straight to the library and researched how to become a lawyer!”

Michelle worked as a trainee legal executive in Portsmouth and studied for two years at weekends at Guildford School of Law to qualify. She moved back to Cricklade and started her career as a family law solicitor with a firm in Cirencester.

She joined Bevirs in 2014 and today, as well as being a trained collaborative lawyer, she is a member of Resolution, a national organisation committed to the constructive resolution of family disputes following a Code of Practice that promotes a non-confrontational approach to family problems.

“These are people’s lives we are dealing with and I never forget that,” says Michelle.

“Before I was a mother, I had compassion and sympathy for my clients but since I’ve had a child I have a deeper empathy and an understanding which I believe has helped me in my work as a family lawyer.”