This is in no small part because of the training, development and commitment of staff members over the years. In this regard, Harold Benjamin is pleased to announce that Geoff Dennis will be joining the firm as a legal director in the private client team.

Geoff trained with Vijay Parikh, the firm’s current managing director, over 17 years go and described his move back to the firm as ‘coming home’. Geoff credits Vijay for encouraging him to pursue his chosen area of practice: “whilst in my commercial property seat with Vijay, he referred any private client matters which landed on his desk to me and I began to realise this was the field in which I wanted to specialise. We have remained in touch since then.”

His experience at Harold Benjamin was a far cry from the work placement Geoff had completed before obtaining a training contract here, when he was left to babysit a defendant’s baby during a trial on one occasion!

The most important aspects of being a trainee Geoff recalls were having a strong client-solicitor relationship, discipline, determination, and a positive attitude. This emphasis on building trust with clients remains a central part of the firm, and it’s managing director, Vijay Parikh’s practice.  In that regard, Vijay explained that cultural fit is an important part of the firm’s on-going plans, going on to say that it seemed to him Geoff epitomised the quality of being a trusted general professional adviser to his clients.

Nearly two decades after they last worked together, Vijay Parikh said he is looking forward to seeing Geoff come back to play a pivotal part to the firm’s next phase of growth and in particular in the exceptional private client team.  Geoff too has ambitions for his role at Harold Benjamin and professed delight at reuniting with many old colleagues: “It can sometimes be daunting to start a new role without knowing anyone and so the fact that there is already a degree of familiarity is reassuring”.