37-year career of divorce and family specialist solicitor in Bury St Edmunds ends after raising the bar for dedication

Family law solicitor Elizabeth Hodder has announced her retirement after working in Bury St Edmunds for most of her career.

Elizabeth was born in Bury and has been helping families in the courts for 37 years, with 35 of those spent working in the town.

Having qualified in 1984, she became an equity partner with Gross & Co solicitors in Guildhall Street after starting out in the profession at a time when men heavily outnumbered women in the field.

In the following years, the number of people on the solicitor’s roll has almost quadrupled and since 2018, there have been more women than men on the roll.

Having spent six years in training before being added to the roll, Elizabeth began her career working for £2,980 per year in 1982, which is the equivalent of just under £9,000 in today’s money.

Elizabeth specialised in divorce proceedings and worked to ensure that children could maintain a relationship with both parents wherever there was no reason for them not to.

Elizabeth also helped reunite estranged parents with their children, and plans to continue working in that area during her retirement.

She said: “My favourite area of practice were cases involving children. I had a no-nonsense approach to situations where an absent parent was being prevented from seeing his/her children without just cause. Ensuring that children can exercise their right to a good relationship with both of their parents became my quest, and I was very successful in achieving excellent outcomes for my clients, of both genders.”

Elizabeth is stepping down as a solicitor, but families will still benefit from her good work as she plans to continue helping people during her retirement.