Meet the Team

Hello and welcome to our latest article!

We find out more about our family team this week with Stephanie.

Name:  Stephanie Redmond

Role: Legal Assistant

Department: Family Team

What is your proudest accomplishment (either personal or professional)?

Working as an independent volunteer in 2008 and 2009, teaching in remote villages in Uganda and Nepal.  I set up a reading circle in Uganda, and then assisted with a women’s group in Nepal.  It had been set up by a local beekeeper – in an open-sided cow shed – teaching maths and English to widows who had been cast out of their families.  It was really humbling to see how committed they were to improving their positions to benefit their own children, against the impossible obstacles that society and local cultures had put in front of them.

I’m still in touch with the communities that I lived in and I was honoured to be invited back to Uganda earlier this year to a wedding.  Unfortunately, due to Covid it wasn’t possible to attend but I hope to go back again one day!

What do you like most about your job?

I just love working in law!  I fell into it after coming from a local authority background (town planning) in East Sussex.  The first role I was offered in Plymouth was meant to be used as a “stop gap” after relocating but I very quickly found that I loved the pace and was particularly well suited to family law, so eventually I stopped looking for a position to come up in the local authority and here I am – 16 years later!

What do you like least about your job?

When contact with children is withheld by one parent to try and get a reaction (or money!) from the other parent.  It never ends well once the case gets in front of a family Judge, yet we see it time and time again.  It’s very sad.

What is the best gift you’ve ever given/received?

I took my mum to the Royal Chelsea Flower Show for her 60^th birthday.  She is obsessed with gardening so it was the holy grail for her.  It was a really beautiful spring day and I’ll never forget it.  In fact, I’ll probably do the same for her 70^th!

What does your ideal day look like?

A breakfast of croissants and black coffee, then a long “nature walk” with my family (either Mount Edgecombe to Kingsand/Cawsand, or Long Timber Woods, Ivybridge), followed by a traditional pub roast (or Ploughmans in the summer), and then family night with a boardgame or cards.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

What spare time?  When I find it, I’ll probably head to the allotment, or sit in a park trying to read more than one chapter of a book!

What is your dream job?

I wanted to get into either teaching or journalism when I was growing up.  Now that I have friends who have gone into teaching, that job no longer appeals (they definitely don’t get paid enough) but I’d love to have tried my luck as a photojournalist.  Next time round!

What was the most interesting case you have dealt with at work?

All family law cases are interesting for their own reasons.  You are dealing with families and all the idiosyncrasies that go hand in hand with those very unique dynamics.  Some individuals have eyewatering wealth to divide, some couples are most concerned with who gets the plants in the garden – or the cat!  No two cases are the same.

Where is one place you’d love to travel to?

I’m lucky to have travelled extensively, but a trip on the Orient Express from London to Venice one day – that’s the dream.  Travelling is half the fun to me, and this is definitely one experience I would tick off my bucket list if I ever won the lottery!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

“Open your mind before you open your mouth”.