Mid-year roundup: Growing together, caring for clients, and supporting the community 📆
Just like that, we’re halfway through 2026 – and what a year it’s been so far! On top of all the amazing client and case work, we’ve been busy growing our team in key areas, celebrating personal and professional milestones, supporting charities, bringing the team together out of the office, and gaining widespread press coverage. It’s no wonder the months have flown by!
Here’s a quick recap of the year so far:
- Raised money for and actively supported multiple charities, including North West Air Ambulance Charity, The Child Brain Injury Trust, and more.
- Featured in The Times, Law News, theHRDIRECTOR, TheBusinessDesk, and more – giving our expert insights on topics such as road safety legislation and workplace health and safety.
- Grew the team and bolstered our key specialisms in catastrophic injury, disputed liability claims, high-value personal injury work, and client support.
- Launched the Optimal Fitness and Wellbeing Group, creating opportunities for colleagues from different teams to connect, take a break from their desks, and build relationships in a relaxed setting.
- Celebrated Optimal Med Operations Manager Chris Hindle’s 10-year anniversary.
To top it all off, we hosted our annual summer BBQ. The sun shone, burgers and Polish sausages were served up by our Head of Personal Injury and new grillmaster Mark Thomason, and the whole team came together on the terrace to celebrate everything we’ve achieved so far!
And we didn’t take our foot off the gas in June, either. Here’s what’s been happening in UK law and at Optimal HQ over the past month…
Legal briefing
A fairer end to relationships: Government consultation launched
The government has launched an open consultation to reform the law around financial arrangements and protections when relationships end in England and Wales. The consultation is open to the public and also encourages contributions from academics, family law practitioners, and the Family Courts’ judges and magistrates. It focuses on three areas: financial remedies on divorce and dissolution, financial provision for cohabitants on separation, and inheritance provision for cohabitants on death.
The workplace safety failures behind 680,000 serious injury claims per year, featuring expert insights from Optimal’s Susan Phelps
Our Catastrophic Injury Senior Solicitor, Susan Phelps, has shared her insights and recommendations for an article with theHRDIRECTOR. She addressed the most prevalent workplace injury issues, like outdated risk assessments, inconsistent training, poor equipment maintenance, and PPE failures. Optimal also provided new analysis, which found that workplace injury claims at our firm took an average of 586 days to resolve last year because of these very issues.
Read the full article here for more findings and expert insights into the impact that workplace injuries can have on people’s lives, and what employers can do to reduce their number.
The Optimal pulse
- Our Head of Personal Injury, Mark, attended the JMW Solicitors LLP Charity Golf Day in support of the Child Brain Injury Trust, who do important work helping children and those closest to them. Ultimately, they help families feel less alone. This event felt close to home for us, because brain injury is never just a medical term on our system. It’s a person. Loved ones who also need support. A present and future that suddenly has to be rebuilt. And we were proud to be part of an event that helps raise awareness and supports families affected by brain injury. Optimal Solicitors donated £1,167.39 to the trust, Mark enjoyed good company on a beautiful golf course, and his team came third! We’d like to thank F+A for the invite, it was a great day out ⛳
- We took cross-team connection to new heights on the bouldering wall, as Wojciech, Jakub, and Wojtek visited our local rock climbing centre for one of the more physically challenging meet-ups to come out of our Wellbeing Group. There was more to it than just climbing, though – it showed the value of connecting with team members outside of our usual circles, learning more about each other, and bringing that positive energy back to the office. See how they got on here.
- We were delighted to support Polish Heritage Day 2026 in Morecambe, a wonderful community event celebrating Polish culture, tradition and heritage. Our team attended on the day, helping to fund children’s inflatables, bringing along motorcycles for families to enjoy and handing out reflective bands to promote road safety. We were also pleased to donate the main raffle prize for Gromada Zuchowa “Słowianie” Lancaster – an electric car for children. It was a fantastic day filled with music, food, family activities and a real sense of community.
Employee of the month
Congratulations to Weronika Kasprzak, who takes the Employee of the Month award for June with three votes 👏
Weronika is a great colleague. She’s helpful and very considerate while talking with clients about their issues, and it’s a joy to work with her. Well done, Weronika – your efforts have not gone unnoticed and you are truly appreciated!
Now to celebrate the other team members who received glowing feedback from colleagues this month – starting with Ricky Jones, who consistently earns himself at least one nomination a month:
- Ricky Jones – Responds quickly to IT issues, even sometimes outside of his usual hours. Competent, helpful, and patient with his support.
- Katarzyna Gryszun – Always happy to help with no fuss, even during busy periods. A star and a great colleague.
- Weronika Bojarska – Consistently willing to help, and responds to matters extremely quickly and efficiently.
- Wojciech Duda – Takes a balanced and evolving approach to leadership, providing direction and support where it matters, and always in a positive way.
- Jayne Linaker-Smith – Always so positive and happy, and considers the big picture to help colleagues in other departments understand her role.
- Paula Andrei – Very supportive of team members and always does her best to help clients.
- Grzegorz Szalas – Always there for support and help.
- Edyta Wilgucka-Skubisz – Always does her best to help clients and open as many cases as possible.
- Chris Germaine – Very supportive and always offers his advice in PI cases.
- Jacek Zawieracz – Supportive and very patient.
- Patrycja Delbowska – Jumps into action at short notice for urgent case deliverables.
- Natalia Lewnau – Helpful and a pleasure to speak to.
Work anniversaries
Well done to these three Optimal team members who reached their annual milestones this month 🥳
🎉 Ryszarda Kozikowska Dub – 5 years
🎉 Walter Coupe – 6 years
🎉 Weronika Kasprzak – 8 years
It’s been a pleasure to have you in the team over the years – we greatly appreciate the positive energy you each bring, as well as all of your excellent work!
Blog – Supporting our client through a £389,000 clinical negligence claim
A delayed cervical cancer diagnosis had a life-changing impact on our client – resulting in invasive surgery, loss of fertility, and significant physical and emotional trauma. With the help of our team and Head of Personal Injury and clinical negligence expert, Mark Thomason, our client got the support she needed to regain choice, security, and a path forward after devastating circumstances. Read the full article to see how Mark engaged his deep expertise in the field to help our client achieve £140,000 compensation for injury and £249,000 ringfenced for potential future surrogacy.
Introducing… Edyta Wilgucka-Skubisz
Edyta Wilgucka-Skubisz is a Legal Call Handler in our First Response team – a vital first point of contact for our clients. A key part of her day-to-day is assessing client enquiries to determine their legal merit and potential to proceed. But even more importantly, she provides reassurance and guides clients step by step through the initial registration and administrative process in a clear and supportive way.
These first interactions are crucial, with many individuals making contact during a distressing time in their lives. Edyta’s ability to approach this with empathy and professionalism, particularly in sensitive situations, proves invaluable. She never judges our clients’ circumstances and ensures they feel understood and supported throughout the early stages of their case.
Before joining Optimal Solicitors, Edyta was responsible for legal compliance and price control within a major UK supermarket, ensuring pricing accuracy in line with consumer law. She brings her keen eye for detail in the legal sphere to her current role, where she also carries out administrative duties, including preparing and sending court documents for hearings and supporting general case administration.
Edyta is passionate about working with people and supporting clients who often find themselves in difficult situations and need legal guidance. She finds it highly rewarding to be able to make a positive difference at the beginning of their journey.
But what about outside of work? In her spare time, Edyta enjoys reading about mediation and negotiation and has completed two short online courses in these areas. On a sweeter note, Edyta is our resident cheesecake enthusiast, and that’s something we can all get behind!
“They provide excellent customer service”
Achieving the optimal outcome doesn’t just mean pushing for maximum compensation. While it is important, the main aim is to help our clients secure what they need to move forward with their lives, knowing that they’re able to do so with the right support along the way – be that financial, medical, or otherwise.
We hope none of our clients need to use us more than once, but we’re right here with the same dedicated legal support if they do. Thanks for the kind words, Wojciech! 🤝
Get back on track with Optimal
Whether you’ve suffered a personal injury, are working through a separation, or need advice on a family matter, Optimal Solicitors are here to listen when sometimes others won’t. It’s our aim to help you find a path forward, applying our experience and expertise and dedicating ourselves to supporting you throughout the process.
To find out more about how we can help, call our team today on 0161 250 7771 or complete our online contact form.
