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Tessa Shepperson, BA, LLB, Solicitor

Tessa Shepperson is the creator and editor of Landlord-Law and has written most of the content. Below is a brief biography.

Tessa was born in London and grew up in South London, going to Mary Datchelor Girls School, a direct grant grammar school (sadly now closed - the building was for a while the head office of Save the Children, but has subsequently been developed for housing). She then went to Hull University to study Geography and then to Durham University to study for a PGCE. However she decided that teaching did not suit her, and left the course. There followed a rather bleak period - this was 1980 when unemployment was very high. Not knowing what else to do, she applied for a secretarial course at New College Durham, which she attended for a year learning shorthand and typing, together with basic economics and law.

It was during this time that Tessa discovered that she enjoyed law, so after completing the course she returned to London to work as a legal secretary (mostly at city firm Durrant Piesse, now part of Lovells) while studying for the London external law degree. After a couple of years she was able to leave secretarial work and work as a litigation assistant at Woodroffes solicitors. After completing the LLB course she went on to study for the Law Society Finals at the College of Law at Lancaster Gate. She passed the exams with merit and then took a year out to travel. Although Tessa took a rather long route to qualification, the secretarial skills she obtained proved invaluable later, plus working as a legal secretary is an excellent introduction to working as a solicitor.

After an enjoyable year out, Tessa moved to Norwich to do her articles at Cozens Hardy & Jewson (now Cozens Hardy LLP), qualifying in 1990, and staying on as an assistant solicitor in their litigation department. During her time there she had a 'mixed bag' of work with an emphasis on property litigation. Tessa enjoyed working at CHJ but felt her future did not lie there, so in 1994 she decided to set up as a sole practitioner, working from home, as TJ Shepperson. Initially she did general litigation, including legal aid work, but again with an emphasis on property work, gradually acquiring a clientele for repossession work among local landlords and letting agents.

In 1995 Tessa met and married Graeme Gee who then joined her in the business as a paralegal specialising in employment claims. Together they obtained a legal aid franchise for the firm in late 1995 which was maintained until 1999. However during that year, it was decided to change the direction of the firm and withdraw from legal aid work. Tessa decided to concentrate on her work for private landlords and specialise in repossession work, while Graeme continued with his employment claims but on a private fee paying basis, generally under no win no fee agreements.

For some years Tessa had been interested in the internet, and had learnt html (having attended an excellent short course at UEA) and written her own, rather basic, website for the firm. In 1999 it was decided to set up a specialist web-site for landlords. She was introduced to Gill Bishop at Bitenet in Bristol (www.bitenet.co.uk), who has been her web designer ever since. With Gill's help two linked sites were developed, one for TJ Shepperson and one called Landlord Law. The Landlord-Law site initially devised as a marketing site for Tessa's work for landlords, with some free content, plus online instruction forms so landlords could instruct Tessa direct. It also contained a Q&A section where Tessa answered 10 readers questions every two weeks.

It was through the Q&A section that Tessa came to realise that many landlords and tenants had no idea of their legal rights and obligations. She then conceived the idea of an online information service which people would pay to access. Feedback from readers confirmed that they would be prepared to pay for content and so the idea of Landlord-Law was born.

However in the meantime Tessa had been contacted by Jamie Ross, the editor at Law Pack publishing, who needed someone to advise on tenancy agreements, their previous advisor having left. After some initial work updating their forms, Tessa was commissioned to write her 'Residential Lettings' book. This proved very sucessful and has been in print ever since it was first publisehd in 2000 (and which is regularly updated every year). Also, the research for the book was extremely valuable as it gave her a depth of knowledge on landlord work which most solicitors do not have, and was the basis for much of the initial content of the Landlord-Law site. Tessa subsequently wrote two more books for LawPack, 'Renting: The Essential Guide to Tenants Rights', which is aimed at tenants, and a book for lodgers which is currently only available as an e-book from the LawPack web-site.

The Landlord-Law web-site was launched on 29 November 2001, and was immediately successful if moderately so. No fortunes have been made but the site has provided a steady income and has allowed Tessa to give up other areas of legal work and concentrate on private residential landlord and tenant work. Since its launch the site has expanded greatly to include additional services such as the Law Reform section, the Local Authority Directory, and 'Find a Property Solicitor' service, as well as an online discussion forum. Tessa has enjoyed developing the site and pioneering what is a very new and original method of delivery of legal services.

In 2006 Tessa started her blog, the Landlord Law Blog at www.landlordlawblog.co.uk. This was originaly just started for fun, but it has developed to become an important part of Tessa's online presence. In 2009 it was moved from the Google blogger service to a self hosted wordpress blog, with a new design from Gill Bishop.

On a personal level Tessa and Graeme's son Patrick was born in October 1996. One of the benefits of Landlord-Law is that it allows Tessa to work from home, which is convenient when bringing up a child. In 2003 Tessa was elected the Honorary Secretary of her local law society, the Norfolk and Norwich Law Society, and in that capacity has developed a CPD program for local solicitors which is much appreciated. When not working she enjoys reading, cooking, growing vegetables, and watching Dr Who with her family.