Farah Mahfooz joined Palmers Solicitors in June 2023 and is a Solicitor working in our Family Law department. She works primarily out of our Basildon office.
In her role, Farah advises and represents clients in family matters including divorce and financial matters, child arrangements and injunctions. Farah can also advise on Pre and Post Nuptial Agreements as well as Cohabitation Agreements.
Farah’s kind and caring personality helps her clients feel at ease in what are often emotionally complex situations. She acts in the best interests of her clients and helps them get through difficult circumstances.
In her spare time, Farah enjoys spending time with friends and family and also keeps a keen interest in the latest sporting events, particularly football and tennis.
Shannon-Louise is a Paralegal in our Wills and Probate department. She holds a law degree (joint honours) and has six years’ experience as a private client paralegal.
Her role includes Will drafting, probate administration and preparing Lasting Power of Attorney applications.
In her spare time, Shannon-Louise enjoys reading, gardening and spending time with family and friends.
Brooke Barnes is a Legal Executive at our Thurrock office, working with the Property and Conveyancing team.
She was promoted to Senior Associate in February 2023, and as of March 2025, she is the Head of Branch at our Thurrock office, overseeing both the Thurrock Residential Property Team and the daily operations of the office.
She has worked in property law since 2006 and is a qualified paralegal. She is currently studying for her Licensed Conveyancer qualification.
Brooke specialises in residential property, dealing with the selling of houses and flats, transfer of ownership and re-mortgages for clients and is known for her friendly, reliable reassuring and practical approach which clients value.
In her spare time, Brooke enjoys music, immersing herself in a wide range of non-fictional literature and spending time with friends and family.
Laura Stock is a Chartered Legal Executive in the Wills and Probate department, based at our South Woodham Ferrers office.
Laura joined the Wills & Probate department in the summer of 2014 having successfully graduated from Canterbury Christ Church University as a Bachelor of Law with First Class Honours. Laura successfully went on to graduate from CILEx Law School in February 2021 as a Chartered Legal Executive.
Laura was promoted to Senior Associate in February 2023 and in February 2024 she became head of branch at our South Woodham Ferrers office with responsibility for the South Woodham Ferrers Private Client Team and the daily operations at that office.
As part of her role in supporting all members of her team, Laura is a trained Mental Health First Aider (MHFA).
Laura is a Dementia Friend
Laura’s working hours are Tuesday-Friday, 9am – 5:30pm.
Layna qualified as a solicitor in March 2011 whist working for a London-based law firm, where she initially specialised in defending white collar crime including criminal confiscation, asset forfeiture, fraud and money laundering. Layna developed an interest in property law as assets often had to be sold at the conclusion of criminal confiscation proceedings and clients were keen for Layna to continue acting for them in all aspects of their legal needs.
Layna joined Palmers Solicitors in June 2017 as an Associate Solicitor initially to create, grow and develop the Property Team in our Rayleigh office. In February 2023 Layna combined her Litigation and property expertise and moved to the Construction Law department where she worked closely with the head of the Construction and Engineering Law Department, Adam Davis. Layna’s attention to detail lead to huge successes in that areas of payment disputes and adjudications in particular. In August 2024 Layna as promoted to Departmental Director of the Construction Team and continues to advise clients, including private individuals, sub-contractors and main contractors, on all areas of Construction Law including:
Arbitration
Adjudication
Applications for payments
County Court claims
Delay and Disruption Claims
Insurance-related matters
Mediation
Payment Disputes
Technology and construction court claims
Advising on and drafting JCT contracts
NEC contracts
Bespoke contracts
Standard form contracts
Amendments to standard form contracts
Layna is a member of the Society for Construction Lawyers. Away from the office, Layna enjoys the theatre and spending as much time as possible with her very active twin boys.
Siobain Moore joined Palmers Solicitors in October 2016 as a Solicitor in the Wills, Trusts and Probate Department, having previously trained and qualified in September 2015 with another large regional practice. She was promoted to Senior Associate in February 2023.
She specialises in acting for clients when drafting Wills and Codicils.This includes advising on estate planning and Will drafting for clients who are concerned about the cost of care home fees and Inheritance Tax.
Siobain is also experienced in drafting and registering Lasting Powers of Attorney, registering Enduring Powers of Attorney and dealing with probate and estate administration as well as trust work. This includes drafting and finalising Declarations of Trusts including those for couples who are purchasing properties in unequal shares and/or contributing different amounts towards their purchase.
Siobain is also an accredited member of Association of Lifetime Lawyers, a National Body specialising in areas of law affecting elderly clients and their carers, and is a fully accredited Trust and Estates Practitioner with STEP (a global professional association for practitioners who specialise in family inheritance and succession planning).
Away from the office, Siobain is a cooking enthusiast and a food blogger. She enjoys trying new and different restaurants with family and friends.
Siobain is also a keen reader and likes to keep fit.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
