Practice Manager
Penny Dewar joined RIAA Barker Gillette in 2009, bringing with her valuable experience from leading City firms Speechly Bircham and Nabarro. Initially working as John Gillette’s secretary—supporting both the commercial real estate and corporate departments—Penny quickly demonstrated a natural flair for marketing and business development.
Her expertise in organising high-profile corporate events at venues such as The Science Museum, Vinopolis, 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin), Wimbledon, and Queen’s Club highlighted her strong event management skills.
After a brief period working in the countryside, Penny returned to the firm in 2015 to take on a more strategic role, shaping RIAA Barker Gillette’s marketing and business development efforts. Over time, she also expanded her remit to include systems development, coding the firm’s website and creating tools to streamline operations and improve efficiency.
In recognition of her broad expertise across marketing, practice management, and systems development, Penny was appointed Practice Manager on 1 July 2025.
Compliance and accreditation responsibilities
- Preparing evidence packs for external audits and recertification
- Planning and executing internal audits against LawNet ISO 9001 Standards
- Maintaining audit lifecycle documentation and approval process
- Tracking and implementing corrective actions for non-conformities
- CQS renewal submissions, extensions and training enrolments and certificate tracking
- Ensure compliance with SRA, AML, and LawNet requirements
Experience/qualifications
- Operations/compliance/HR coordination in a legal practice
- Microsoft Office User Specialist
- Advanced Excel and case management/payroll systems
- Awareness of SRA Standards & Regulations and AML concepts
Key responsibilities
- Insurance & certifications: Leading PI insurance renewals and related questionnaires; collating, filing and publishing statutory documents
- Payroll & benefits: Running monthly payroll workflows; managing healthcare renewals
- Audit coordination: Preparing documentation for LawNet audits and internal audits
- Financial management: Building annual budgets, monitoring expenditure, preparing profitability and cash flow reports
- Management information: Producing monthly reports and assembling partner packs
- HR governance: Oversee induction/onboarding
- Company secretarial & portals: administering the firm’s MySRA portal and managing bulk practising certificate renewals
- Policy & knowledge management: Maintaining Office Manuals and communications
- Supplier due diligence: Maintaining a detailed log of all external contracts and managing a register of contracts and key dates
- Governance meetings: Coordinating partnership meetings and ensuring agendas are circulated, minutes are prepared, and they are filed.
- Compliance & risk reporting: Running PMS reports; compiling SRA AML Questionnaire metrics
Marketing
- Advertising campaigns
- Client feedback and experience
- Contact and database management
- Content creation, design and management
- Digital marketing and social media
- Email marketing
- Planning, forecasting and budgeting
- Project management
- Monitoring and recording marketing activities
- Reporting to Senior Leadership
- Managing firm memberships
- Website build, design, management and SEO performance
- Liaison with RIAA Barker Gillette global affiliates on marketing strategies
Skills and competencies
- Regulatory operations experience (SRA/AML/LawNet/CQS)
- Financial management and advanced Excel skills
- Payroll/benefits administration (Moorepay)
- Project management to strict cycles
- Document & evidence management
- Excellent written communication and stakeholder management
- High discretion/confidentiality
- Preparing for LawNet audits and CQS renewals
