About Steven

I am Steven Mather, a highly experienced Solicitor and Mediator qualifying in 2008. I’ve been a business lawyer ever since – helping small business owners through their legal issues to help us all sleep better at night. I’m tenacious and robust when needed, but also very calm and supportive bringing a touch of humour and compassion to matters. I can be direct, yet friendly and I only ever use plain English. I get results for clients and provide solutions to problems – I don’t put hurdles in the way! I have acted for a wide range of clients, from national PLC clients to small and medium-sized businesses as well as individuals.

What I really enjoy the most in my job is helping people. If I can help someone who just can’t sleep because they’re facing one of the biggest issues of their life, and I know what to do to fix it, it can be really rewarding. People appreciate it more when I can help them like that.

I’m all about fairness and justice for deserving clients, and seeing them get that with my help really is a passion of mine.

I am a Consultant Solicitor with Nexa Law Limited. Legal advice is provided through Nexa Law which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Mediation Services are provided by Kesters Nook Limited, which is not authorised or regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

My Core Values

1. Keep your word.
2. Smile. Have fun.
3. People and relationships are more important.
4. Seek to deliver excellent service.
5. Be approachable and friendly. Be calm and collected.
6. Be up to date, be knowledgable.
7. Know when to be robust and when to be conciliatory.
8. Do the right thing.
9. Seek Justice and Righteousness.
10. Work smart.

My History

Here’s a detailed CV as it were of my career.

Partner Nexa Law – Consultant Solicitor January 2020 to date

• I ply my trade through Nexa Law and so I’m called a partner, although I do not own Nexa Law myself.
• I am a consultant solicitor, which means I effectively run my own legal business and Nexa helps me run it with compliance, insurance and such like. 
• Over the last few years, I have moved away from doing mostly litigation, to now dealing with mostly commercial work. 
• This site details all of my experiences and how I can help you and your business, so if you have any questions, get in touch. 

Partner of Josiah Hincks – August 2011 to January 2020

• Featured in The Times as Lawyer of the Week in 2014 and shortlisted as Solicitor of the Year 2015.
• Featured as an expert in the Leicester Mercury and BBC Radio on numerous occasions. A number of my cases have been reported in law reports and legal journals.
• Offered partnership after eight months, becoming a Partner in April 2012. Since a member of the Senior Management Team deciding strategy and making key business decisions.
• Head of Litigation managing and supervising lawyers in litigation and business matters. Branch Partner managing a team of staff. Money Laundering Reporting/Compliance Officer until May 2019. 
• Over the years, I have dealt with a wide range of disputes from small debt collection to multi-million pound claims. 
• Acting for 20 or so different national companies in complex Interest Rate Hedging claims against banks, with total compensation in excess of circa £20 million.
• Acting for PLC as their sole intellectual property solicitor, in various trademark issues (registration and disputes), copyright infringement and patents, taking the work away from a Top 10 law firm.
• Acting for a medical devices company in a termination of contract dispute worth £250k.
• Acting for 3 individuals in pension claims worth nearly £1m.
• Acting for a wealthy family in a shareholder dispute with their son, with assets circa £15m.
• Acting for a Bank in multiple claims against multiple surveyors for negligence.
• Acting in a number of employment tribunal claims, typically defending employers from claims of unfair dismissal and discrimination. 
• Advising and drafting an international shoe manufacturer/supplier’s terms and conditions, and advising on a bilingual contract in China. 
• Advising and drafting software and hardware licence agreements (EULA) for an award-winning innovative energy-saving device. 
• Advising commercial property clients including pursuing tenant arrears; pursuing and defending dilapidation claims; advising on landlord/tenant leasehold rights and obligations.
• Advising residential landlords in respect of tenant arrears; notices to terminate tenancies and repossession proceedings.
• Advising employees and employers in various matters on employment contract restrictive covenants and breach of confidentiality, solicitation of customers, data protection breaches and forensic analysis of electronic devices. 
• Acting for a number of Insolvency Practitioners on Insolvency matters including directors’ loan recoveries and book debt collection.
• Advising client in respect of professional negligence against both solicitor and accountant in his purchase of property in a company worth £1m
• 100+ live files at any one time personally, typically multi-track claims, with mixture of contract, negligence, shareholder/partnership, land/property, wills/probate disputes, employment disputes and insolvency matters, along with legal support for business clients providing advisory function on various compliance matters and a wide range of commercial issues. 
• Creating and advising upon internal debt collection procedures and setting up debt recovery programmes for clients
• Drafting and negotiating commercial documents, licence agreements, agency/distribution, software/hardware licences, share documents, company documents including articles of association, notices, board minutes and filings, employment contracts/handbooks and terms and conditions. 
• Experience in conducting own advocacy in County and High Court at Interim Hearings. 
• Detailed knowledge of CPR.
• Considerable experience in dealing with Costs assessments. 
• Training and supervising junior team members, sharing knowledge and experience and new legal updates.

Self Employed – August 2010 – August 2011

• During a sabbatical from Law soon after my daughter was born, I set up two companies (an e-commerce business which I subsequently sold, and one providing services for international students). I also trained and qualified as a mediator, primarily because I could see the need and benefit for clients in resolving disputes through mediation.
• I carried out my mediation training at an intensive course at the London School of Psychotherapy, Regents College, London. It combined the psychology of disputes and negotiation with mediation techniques and skills, and alongside other training I have in NLP and of course, law, allowed me to really understand the key personal motivators in disputes. I now have a very good understanding of negotiation skills and tactics, and can effectively and compassionately deal with people of all backgrounds to get great results.

BHW Solicitors – October 2005 to July 2010

• I started as a Paralegal in the conveyancing department and after three months they offered me a training contract. After a further six months in conveyancing, I spent most of my training in Litigation, but with considerable exposure to company/commercial matters working closely with the partners. They offered me a job on qualification and so I qualified as a Solicitor in February 2008 and continued to deal with litigation. 
• Wide range of experience for large national PLC clients such as Next Plc as well as local SMEs. 
• Experience in various areas and sectors including acting in partnership disputes, professional negligence claims, personal injury claims, breach of contract claims, franchise disputes, negligence claims, sale of goods/supply of services claims, property disputes, IP disputes, bankruptcy/insolvency etc.
• Worked closely with clients to develop bespoke and effective volume debt recovery processes for a subsidiary of Deutsche Telecom and Emu Australia, as well as smaller scale, and have then dealt with the matters from letters of claim through to Court and on to enforcement.
• Experience within the company/commercial team, assisting on share sales/purchases, drafting all types of commercial agreements, company documents and filings.

Education

School of Psychotherapy and Counselling Psychology
Mediation, Mediation Course in Alternative Dispute Resolution · (2011 – 2011)

De Montfort University
Law, Llb, Legal Practice Course · (2001 – 2004)

Queen Elizabeth I College, Leicester
A Levels, Law, Business Studies, Computer Science · (1999 – 2001)

Lancaster Boys School Leicester
GCSEs (1994 – 1999)

 

The Real Story…

I’ll be honest… I fell in to doing law and being a lawyer.

From a young age, I thought I would be a Formula 1 driver at the weekend and a Hairdresser on the weekday. Everyone needs a hair cut, right? Alas, being 6ft 4 and 18 stone didn’t make me an ideal size for F1!

At Secondary School, I was the young entrepreneur – I sold sweets in the playground. I ate most of the profits though. The day I sold 50 bouncy balls though was profitable but the school weren’t best pleased.

Into A-Levels, and the internet becoming possible at home, I got into computers and specifically webdesign. I had my own webdesign company, and also owned and operated a number of websites. The UK’s biggest music website, in fact. I coded one of the first price comparison sites for CDs, and was involved in one of the earliest legal music download sites. My first website pre-dates Google!

I’ve always been involved in business growing up my dad was always self-employed. I’ve even owned and ran a disability scooter shop before.

I did Business, Maths and Computers at A-Levels, and it was the Maths that I really struggled with. At the end of the first year, I got an E and so had to drop the subject and pick something else. There weren’t many one-year options; Law, Media, Psychology. So I picked Law. The teacher said I would need to “hit the ground running” and I said that’s OK as I had some good trainers.

At the end of the first assessed module, I scored 100% and started to think that I might enjoy law. I’d already signed up to University to do Computer Science and so I spoke to them to see if I could switch to Law and they said yes.

So Law it was.

I did reasonably well at Law School, excelling at modules like Contract Law and Tort Law, rather than Criminal Law and Family. I never really wanted to do those areas anyway. As the first in my family to attend University, I sadly treated it seriously and, well, studied. I read books and articles and absorbed all the interesting stuff rather than what I hear you’re supposed to do at Uni these days which is sleep and drink.

Upon graduation, I started work at a relatively new firm called BHW Solicitors in Leicester, firstly as a paralegal in the conveyancing department, on to a training contract and ultimately qualifying.

In 2010, my daughter was born and I left the firm to start my own businesses. I had two relatively successful businesses; an online business which was later sold, and a proofreading business. I also trained as a mediator to help other lawyers’ clients settle disputes.

After a year or so out of law, I was asked to join Josiah Hincks. Eight or nine months later, I became a Partner and then Head of Litigation. I was a Partner at the firm for 8 1/2 years before leaving to set up on my own as a consultant solicitor.

So now I’m a lawyer for SMEs, directors and business owners.  I’m also an author, a podcaster, and multiple business owner.

Outside of work, I have an amazing and supportive wife and two wonderful children. I enjoy playing the piano, fine dining, and travelling the world. 

You’ll find me hanging around LinkedIn regularly, so do follow me there. 

I’m all about having fun while we work, so I might tell a joke or two, use a pun, and generally want to enjoy life. I’m not chained to my desk these days, so if you want to speak to me, it is better to arrange a mutually convenient time for a call.