Yorkshire lawyers judged best in country at awards

Mr Priestley, senior partner at Ridley and Hall in Huddersfield, who has been honoured in the past for his work with kinship carers was runner up as Solicitor of the Year in 2008. He went one better in this year's Law Society's Excellence Awards honouring outstanding practitioners, picking up the top award at a dinner and ceremony in London.

"I was surprised and delighted to win," he said yesterday. "The standard of people on the shortlist was really impressive so I really did not anticipate it, but we have been involved in some landmark rulings this year."

Mr Priestley, 58, has become one of the country's leading experts in ensuring local authorities live up to their financial responsibilities to family carers, making judicial review challenges against several.

"We may be based in Huddersfield but we reach across the country," he said.

It was a very good night for Mr Priestley one of the founders of the Huddersfield Law Society's Uganda Twinning Committee which was Highly Commended in the Excellence in Community Awards.

Over the years he and his fellow solicitors in Huddersfield have helped train counterparts in Uganda and arranged for thousands of legal text books to be sent out to help them.

"Several representatives from the large firms approached us at the dinner and asked how they could help in the future which is a great boost," he said.

Almost 600 lawyers and their guests saw Ryedale solicitor Mrs Adams named as the Association of Women Solicitors Legal Business Woman of the Year only four years after she set up her own firm near Malton.

A sole practitioner with a staff of seven she now has offices in Scarborough and Grimsby specialising in probate, tax, trust and law involving the elderly.

The mother-of-three did not have a conventional entry into the legal profession qualifying as a chartered tax advisor before joining a solicitors firm .

She was nominated for the national awards after winning the AWS award for the Best Woman Solicitor Managing a Small Practice.

Law Society President Linda Lee said: "The winners of this year's awards should be very proud of this superb accolade."

Yorkshire had a high profile at the awards as Bradford solicitor Mohammed Idris Mir was also on the shortlist of six for the Solicitor of the Year award and legal teams from both Leeds City Council and Scarborough were on shortlists in other categories.