For Cheltenham-based Willans LLP solicitors, supporting the LGBTQ+ community stretches far beyond Pride Month.
SoGlos sits down with the firm's LGBTQ+ champion and partner in the wills, trusts and probate team, Tom O'Riordan, to discover how Willans is 'walking the walk' when it comes to making a meaningful difference for the LGBTQ+ community in Gloucestershire and beyond – and how it can help LGBTQ+ families with expert legal advice from people who truly understand them.
Tom, you're an LGBTQ+ champion at Willans – tell us how that role came about and what you do to support your colleagues.
As a firm, we wanted to make sure lots of different areas were represented internally, to support our staff with a whole range of life stages and issues that they might experience. Things like the menopause, parenting and caregiving, mental health, LGBTQ+, gender equality and ethnic and racial diversity.
Currently, there are two internal LGBTQ+ champions – myself and my colleague Joeli Boxall in our family law team – and we are here if people are struggling with any LGBTQ+ issues, whether that be themselves or others. We've got parents of LGBTQ+ children in our team too, so if there are any issues pertaining to them, they can come and talk to us. Even if we don't know the answer, we might be able to find some guidance and signpost them.
Our champions initiative generally has opened so many discussions between colleagues in an organic way and led to things like changes in the firm's internal policies and language. Just as an example, historically the legal profession would write letters that would start 'Dear sirs' – and now we're challenging that. So, having these areas of focus is leading to much wider conversations at management level.
What does Pride in Gloucestershire mean to Willans as a company?
Everyone's so positive towards the LGBTQ+ community. I'm a gay partner at the firm and it's never been anything other than super positive and inclusive; it's a massive part of our ethos. We've even had members of the firm march at Pride in London alongside The Law Society.
When we were talking about supporting the LGBTQ+ community and partnering with Pride in Gloucestershire, we all thought 'I don't know why we're not doing this, we're doing everything else, it just makes so much sense'. We live and breathe our values at the firm, so why are we not doing this?
It's easy to say that we have LGBTQ+ champions but not do anything with it, so for the firm, partnering with Pride is a real demonstration that it's genuinely our ethos, our culture and what we believe in. We're walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
What is Willans doing to support the LGBTQ+ community at Pride?
So, as well as taking part in the Pride in Cheltenham march, we also had a stand at the event and many of our lawyers were there throughout the day, speaking to the community about their situation and any legal issues they’re facing.
We’re also supporting Pride in Gloucester later on this year and just like in Cheltenham, we’ll have lawyers on our stand throughout the day. In the week leading up to the event, we'll also be at the Pride in Gloucestershire HUB to support LGBTQ+ parents or prospective LGBTQ+ parents. I'll be there to talk about wills and guardianship from a legal perspective and my colleagues in family law will be offering guidance on things like gender recognition certificates, surrogacy and adoption from a family law perspective.
We'll be there alongside adoption agencies, too, to provide rounded guidance if people are looking to become a parent and are in an LGBTQ+ couple.
Are there specific legal challenges for LGBTQ+ people which Willans can help with?
As a partner in wills, trusts and probate, a key thing I see that the community need help with is wills. Those who are married or in civil partnerships and are leaving their assets to each other will benefit from spousal exemption from inheritance tax, but many members of the community aren't – and might not necessarily want to for a variety of reasons – so a lot of the discussions we end up having at our Pride stand are around inheritance tax.
From a tax perspective for unmarried couples, this is the sort of planning we can put in place or at least advise clients that it's going to be an issue.
For LGBTQ+ couples that have children, again we talk about wills and appointing guardians. Sometimes that can open a wider conversation – for example, in an unmarried lesbian couple, if one of the parents is the child's biological mother and the other isn't, the biological mother will have parental responsibility but not necessarily the other. This means the biological mother can appoint a guardian to look after the child, while the other parent may not.
So, it's super important that if the biological mother passes away that they have mentioned in their will that the appointed guardian for their child should be the surviving partner to ensure continuity for the child, otherwise the responsibility for who cares for the child could end up being discussed in court.
Another thing is gender recognition in wills. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 came into force on Monday 4 April 2025 – prior to that date, your birth certificate dictates your gender in terms of a will; following that date, your gender recognition certificate dictates what gender you are from a legal perspective.
Is the LGBTQ+ community aware of these legal issues, or is there some education needed?
It's probably a bit of both, insofar as certainly when we're on our Pride stand, lots of people will come to us and say, 'I'm aware there might be a legal issue here, but I don't know what it is, can we talk to you about that?'
But also some people come up saying 'I've got absolutely no idea about this, can you just give me some information please?'
We produced a guide to LGBTQ+ and the law. Regardless of Pride, we thought it would be useful information to give to LGBTQ+ clients that we're acting for when they come into our offices, but they flew off the shelves when we had them on our stand at Pride in Cheltenham.
Is Willans leading the way in LGBTQ+ representation, or is the legal profession becoming more forward-thinking in general?
Willans is forward-thinking and inclusive as a firm and a big part of that is down to our managing partner, Bridget Redmond. The fact that she's steering the ship in this direction has a massive impact and it trickles down through our team.
I think the legal profession used to be stuffy; you'd need to put on a suit or be dressed up for the occasion but we're not about that anymore and that's not what the profession wants to be.
It's daunting enough for people to come in to see a solicitor or to work with legal professionals, so it's absolutely necessary for there to be that safe space for clients to come in and be open about things they might have kept to themselves.
Lots of law firms, particularly in cities, are very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community and you certainly see them at Pride marches, but in smaller towns I think the community may be less vocally supported. From a Gloucestershire perspective, Willans is very forward-thinking in that we are out there saying this is what we believe in and putting our flag in the sand.
I think it’s a really positive thing for us to be saying that we're here for everyone – and when we say everyone, we mean absolutely everyone. That means a lot.
To download Willans' guide to LGBTQ+ and the law, visit willans.co.uk, or to talk to a solicitor, call Willans on 01242 507393.
