A solicitor who has retired after 36 years working in Ashby now wants to use the knowledge acquired over four decades to help a well-known local charity.

John Gillions was with law firm Fishers since 1986 but is also a trustee at Hospice Hope.

The North West Leicestershire-based Hospice Hope looks after people with long-term health conditions and their carers.

Now John intends to focus on that role after retiring as a consultant solicitor with Fishers, which is based at the Ivanhoe Office Park.

"As welI as my career with Fishers, I've been a trustee at Hospice Hope for the last 18 months," said John.

"With retirement, I hope to increase my activities in the area. I want to do a bit more in terms of fundraising.

John said farewell to his Fishers colleagues last month

"Solicitors get bombarded with requests to mention charities to people who are making wills.

"What I want to do is prepare a pack in terms of help solicitors prepare to leave digital assets, and link that with sponsoring Hospice Hope.

"As well as caring for people with long-term health conditions, we are quite involved with people who have long Covid at the moment.

"But they also look after the carers, provide activities, counselling and befriending services. 

"They have coffee clubs in Ashby and Coalville.

"It's a bit of extra support for people, there's a lot of things going on."

Most of John's career with Fishers was based at Kilwardby Street, before the firm moved to its new, modern offices two and a half years ago.

Ironically, due to the Covid pandemic, a lot of that time was spent working from home.

But he has fond memories of the former office in Ashby's town centre.

"I started in March, 1986 at Kilwardby Street," said John. "I was very fond of the office, but I can understand why they wanted to move.

"Put it this way, I went to the Beamish Industrial Museum in Durham a few years ago, they had a solicitors office there from Victorian times and it looks very much like mine!

"I think the predecessor to Fishers started around 1790 in the same building.

"But the room that I was in was previously the Ivanhoe Social Club in the 1960s

"We did move to the new office in 2020, but then during the Covid pandemic, I spent a lot of time working from home

"I was dubious about how that would work but it was surprisingly easy.

"We did teams or zoom meetings with clients. But a lot of people wanted to meet in person anyway.

"I was doing probate, trusts, tax and I took a chartered tax advisor qualification midway through my career, in my 40s.

"And that was probably the toughest exam I've had to take. I wanted to specialise in that area.

 "I was made a partner at Fishers in 1988 when I was 30."

The decision to move to new premises was a major change, but John has seen a gradual shift in his day to day work over the years.

"In terms of the profession, technology is probably the biggest change," he added.

"When I started out in 1981, things were hand-typed, there was a lot of paperwork.

"Now of course it's all done on computer. From that point of view it's become easier, but in terms of response time, everything is needed a lot quicker.

"Clients are more demanding, plus the information they have to hand is more accessible via the Internet. 

"It means we have to add more value now.

"Clients know a little bit, then ask you questions. It means we have to be on our game a bit more."

You can contact Hospice Hope HERE.