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Our Staff and Services

Wildy’s website is maintained in-house by members of staff, using the experience and knowledge gained by the company after more than 182 years as Law Booksellers. We are constantly checking to ensure the information detailed is the latest and most comprehensive. Since September 2004 we have also incorporated Lambs Legal Bookshop Online into our business.

Since 1996 we have published our monthly Wildy’s Book News in both a printed version and a .pdf version available for download. Many libraries now rely on this for their acquisitions and information gathering, as it is the only monthly publication dedicated to legal publishing in the United Kingdom.

You can use our online bookshop to gain access to information and advice on the whole range of services that Wildy & Sons offers including:-

• Library Management:

We offer a library management service to all UK solicitors and barristers. Whether you’re establishing a new library or need advice on new acquisitions or managing your subscriptions we’re able to offer free impartial advice.

• Subscriptions:

We can handle subscriptions to a vast range of Journals, Looseleaf and Periodicals. Our subscription management service is free of charge and we save you the time and expense of dealing with a number of publishers directly.

• Sets:

Whether you are buying or selling, we handle new and second hand sets of law reports and other bound volume sets. Please contact us with details of what you require for further information.

In addition to supporting the needs of the legal community in and around the law courts of London, we have for many years been exporting Wildy’s unique service to our friends and clients in all corners of the world. We hope that all our ‘out of town’ and ‘overseas’ visitors continue to return to the bookshops whenever they are in London, and we equally welcome all new visitors.

BIALL Supplier of the Year 2010

The Citation from BIALL

2010 is the first year for a new award, one made to the supplier rated the best in a survey of the BIALL membership. 144 people responded to the survey, a sizeable proportion of the membership. Suppliers were rated on their advertising and marketing techniques, their pricing and negotiations, their after-sale service, and the quality of their products and services, as well as given an overall rating.

The supplier that has won the award was one of the more widely used of those assessed, with nearly half of respondents rating them. They achieved an average rating, across this large number of people, of over 4 out of 5 in all the categories assessed, with special mention for an average score of 4.73 in the customer service category. 35 respondents nominated the company as their favourite supplier, about 30% of the people who made such a nomination.

They were described as having an excellent product, with good pricing and outstanding customer service, nothing ever seeming to be too much trouble. They really understand the needs of the business, and of individual customers. They respond promptly and helpfully to communications, and resolve the few problems that occur quickly and efficiently.

Many respondents singled out the supplier’s website for praise. It was described as easy to use with all relevant information provided at the touch of a button, and particularly complimented on its accuracy and detail. However, several people also mentioned the monthly printed current awareness newsletter, showing that this supplier continues to use traditional methods alongside modern ones, and manages to do both well.

I am very pleased to announce that the BIALL Supplier of the Year Award for the year 2010 goes to Wildy & Sons Ltd

People of Wildy’s

Abbie Sinkins

Joined 2011 (Customer Support) Abbie is the fourth generation of the Sinkins family to work for the company. She does a bit of everything if asked nicely.

Wai Hing Lau

Joined 2011 (Subscriptions) Wai Hing is part of our growing Subscriptions team. She has experience working in major law firm libraries.

Tina Hartley

Joined 2008 (Regional Accounts Manager) Tina works out of Sheffield and is an enthusiastic member of our sales team. She has considerable experience in law bookselling and is well known for solving client problems with a smile.

Rob Cornish

Joined 2008 (Regional Accounts Manager) Rob joined us in August 2008 as the South & Wales Account Manager. He is an experienced legal bookseller with 16 years working in this environment. Rob has a friendly and professional approach and has been very successful in developing a wide client base.

A proud family man, living in the West Country with his wife and young daughter, his great passion is supporting Chelsea Football Club!

Vincent Silvester

Joined 2008 (Subscriptions) Vinny has been working for the previous thirteen years in various guises. The first five years were at Barclays Bank, and then seven years at Butterworths dealing with general account management and complaints, until he was made redundant in 2007. Vincent has been employed at Wildy’s to field bookshop and subscription enquires in the Lincoln’s Inn branch.

Jason Crimp

Joined 2008 (London Accounts Manager) He began his law bookselling career at some other law bookshop in 1997. From starting out on the shop floor, he soon progressed to Mail Order Manager and in 2002 he became the London Commercial Account Manager. From 2004 he covered London in general, alongside Andrew Riddoch.

Apart from visiting customers and advising on new products, he likes to ensure the smooth running of accounts and is always willing to help solve any queries which may arise. Away from books, he has interests which includes Gracie Fields and has a passing enthusiasm for local history.

David Beales

Joined 2007 (Finance Director and Accounts) David has been connected with Wildys for about 30 years as our accountant. This year he joined us to take a more active role in the company.

Andrew Riddoch

Joined 2008 (Commissioning Editor) Andrew started working in the book trade on a part-time basis, while studying English Literature and Spanish at university. After spending a few years in the medical and legal departments of Dillons the Bookstore, Gower St, he became an Account Manager for a legal bookshop in 1995, and was called to the Bar in 2001 after several years part-time study.

The following year, he moved to Jordan Publishing as a commissioning editor, returning to law bookselling in 2004. As an author himself, Andrew is well aware of the importance of the author-publisher relationship, having recently completed a history of the Footballers’ Battalion during the Great War.

Nigel Fry

2007 (Regional Accounts Manager) Nigel joined us in June to service accounts outside of London. He brings with him nineteen years experience in legal bookselling and, as many of you will know has a very ‘laid back’ attitude preferring to offer advice and assistance (when asked for!) to Librarians and solicitors, rather than ‘sell’ to them.

He was a keen sportsman in his younger days competing at Football, Rugby, Cricket, Tennis and Judo, but is now happy just supporting son Harry who is an enthusiastic footballer.He ran the London Marathon in 2001 but has no immediate plans to repeat it!

A semi-professional musician for many years, he plays 20/30 gigs a year in an acoustic-rock duo and produces numerous CDs.

Matt Regnard

2007 (Subscriptions) Matt Regnard, formerly with LexisNexis’ Customer Services Department, joined in May 2007. After graduating with a degree in Geography in 1996, Matt joined Butterworths in a temporary data processing role. After a few months he moved into a permanent position in their customer service department where he has proved an invaluable asset for the last 10 years.

Graham Norfolk

2006 (eBook and Bibliographic Database Manager) Graham has been in bookselling since 1992 and has formerly worked in most of the bookshops in the South of England. He is currently in charge of maintaining the bibliographic information that feeds this website and eBook sales. His love of Excel spreadsheets is unconditional.

Elaine Ross

2005 (Distribution Centre Manager) Elaine joined us when we moved to our new warehouse and distribution centre in Leighton Buzzard.

Daniel Higgins

2005 (Customer Support) Daniel has been selling books for ten years. He began at the London Business School where he worked for five years. Subsequently, he travelled and most recently, worked for Hammicks Law Bookshop in Fleet Street. Daniel still enjoys music, especially Alpine New Wave and Oi!, and can occassionaly be persuaded to play his ukulele.

Jonathan Sykes

2004 (Online Sales Manager) Jonathan started selling law books at Dillon’s in 1979, he then moved to Parks Business and Law Bookshop as manager in 1982, and latterly was a partner in Lambs Legal and Medical Bookshop. He broods at the back of the shop with the Antiquarian and Legal History titles where he is responsible for tweaking the data and managing the sales of our online bookshop.

He knows more about Star Wars (now on Blu Ray) than a grown man should, but blames this on a twelve year old son who now doesn’t care so much for the Jedi, but who continues to hone his football skills for Southend

Alden Bowers

2004 (Key Accounts Manager) Alden joined us in June 2004, which makes him one of our newest members of staff, however he brought with him over fourteen years experience of law bookselling gained during his time with Hammicks, where he was bookshop manager for several years. Alden’s role as Key Accounts Manager is to visit our library customers on a regular basis and make sure they are kept informed of recent and forthcoming publications that may be of relevance to their practice. By working for Wildy’s Alden is able to provide information and advice on the entire range of legal publications issued by all publishers, rather than just one specific publisher. His impartial and unbiased approach is a key element of his service, and one appreciated by the customers he visits.

Alden is well known to the law librarian community through his many years of work with BIALL, where he has served on the Publications Committee, the Conference Committee, and a four-year stint as Honorary Treasurer. He is currently a member of the Professional Standards and Development Committee, where he provides help with the marketing and administration of their training courses for information professionals.

Charlie Alpera

2003 (Manager, New Books Department) Charlie joined the company in August 2003 having spent the previous six years with Blackwell’s, mostly at their Business and Law Bookshop in High Holborn. He is responsible for the day to day running of Lincoln’s Inn Bookshop. His legal knowledge and bookselling experience make him an excellent addition to the Wildy’s team – he gets lumbered with all the difficult questions. His passion for legal books is equaled only by his love of real ale, fishing and Jamaican music 1962 – 1969 (the early years).

Brian Hill

2002 (Publisher, IT Manager) Brian has been in law publishing for 30 years and ran his own company. He merged his publishing list with that of Wildy’s in 2002 to form our new imprint Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing. As well as developing the new list, he publishes our monthly Wildy Book News and maintains the IT side of our business.

Len Jiggins

2000 (Manager, Fleet Street Shop) Len joined the Company in June 2000 to look after our Fleet Street branch, but his roots in law bookselling go back to 1963 when all of the major law publishers had their own bookshops. He started his career at Sweet & Maxwell’s bookshop, which in those days had direct links to it’s 18th century founders and (he suspects), some original personnel! This early grounding has instilled in him the belief that a ‘proper’ law bookshop should include the occasional obscure ‘gem’ amongst it’s standard works and he takes it as a compliment that the Fleet Street shop has been compared to Dr.Who’s Tardis.

Len had spent two ‘gap’ decades away from law books, as a Trademark searcher, however when he came to be interviewed for the position he now holds he said, “well I realise I’ve been out of the business for some time, but I presume an Archbold is still an Archbold and a Chitty is still a Chitty?” He started work the following week! Len recognises the enormous value of the continuity that we at Wildy’s have maintained and we welcome his contribution to an already vast pool of collective knowledge. Len says that among his ambitions are: ¹. To find an owner for every book on his shelves. ². To have more shelves!

Colin Wickham

1990 (Manager, Secondhand Textbooks Department) Colin joined the company in 1990 as manager of our New Books Department. He had previously worked in Butterworths bookshop since 1974. In 1995, he took over the running of our Secondhand Showroom, where he can be found today. Colin is responsible for all aspects of this department, including the maintenance of our famous out-of-print waiting list system, which holds records in perpetuity. Colin has a gentle and pleasant manner, which reflects a style of service from a bygone era. It was once said that if Wildys did not possess someone like Colin, then we would have had to invent him!

Steven Ross

1989 (Subscriptions Manager) Steven joined the company in 1989 and has been largely involved with New Books ever since then. He was Bookshop Manager for several years and his knowledge of this area of the business is extensive. Steven is involved in the setting up of Key Library Accounts for both chambers and law firms and he is always pleased to advise librarians in this area. He is always willing to rise to a challenge and assist in solving customer problems, whatever they may be.

As Subscription Manager, Steven plays an invaluable part in promoting our customer services philosophy. He has built up a network of contacts within the trade and knows exactly who to approach in getting things sorted, particularly within the major publishing houses.

John Pethick

1982 (Reports & Multi-Volume Sets, Overseas Sales Manager) John joined the company in 1982, following in the footsteps of his father, Douglas, who had been with Wildys since 1966. John has worked in most departments within the company, currently concentrating on the sets and multi-volume reports side of the business. An adaptable and valuable member of staff, John also possesses a wide knowledge of legal textbooks, both new and secondhand. He liaises with Steven Ross as part of our Library Accounts team. John Pethick has a quiet and friendly personality; his depth of understanding and experience makes him an important member of our staff. John usually makes two or three trips each year to visit overseas librarians in Asia or the Caribbean.

John Sinkins

1968 (Managing Director) John officially joined Wildy & Sons in 1968, although he has known the company all his life. He started work in the New Books Department as a junior, working alongside Roy Heywood, who had arrived in the previous year. John became manager of this department in 1972, and in 1975 took over the Secondhand Showroom with responsibility for textbooks. In 1983 he became involved with the companys move towards computerization and was inexorably drawn to administrative affairs within the business.

John was appointed Company Secretary and subsequently became Managing Director. His main role today is looking after customer accounts, marketing and ensuring that the company runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. John regrets not being in the front line more often, but still manages to escape on occasions to meet with customers, old and new.

John has a happy disposition and a famous sense of humour. He prefers a hands-off style of management, but is not averse to pointing someone in the right direction when required. He enjoys meeting people and making new business contacts. Johns grandfather, W.W. Sinkins, joined the company in 1895, his father W.E.B. Sinkins in 1930. This family association with Wildy & Sons, lasting more than one hundred years, has helped to preserve the sense of tradition and history which prevails throughout the company.

Wildy & Sons Ltd – Celebrating 182 Years of Service to the Legal Community