Enable Law has announced the appointment of Annabelle Vaughan as the new head of its specialist mental capacity team.
Annabelle will lead Enable Law’s fast-growing 41-strong team of mental capacity legal experts who support vulnerable people and their families with long-term care and financial needs.
In the post, Annabelle, who joined Enable Law as a partner in September 2023, will lead the expansion of her team’s reach and service offering, building upon its strong South West and South East foundation to serve clients throughout the UK. This will involve growing the team to cover key regions across the country.
Commenting on her appointment, Annabelle, who works at Enable Law’s Southampton office, said: “I genuinely feel honoured and privileged to have the opportunity to lead Enable Law’s brilliant mental capacity team and I’m very excited about our future prospects for growth.
“As well as being outstanding professionals, I genuinely find that every single member of my team regards our work as a vocation rather than a job and I am relishing the chance to support their development.
“I am proud that every single member of my team has a commitment, empathy and understanding which you can’t teach and I have seen first-hand that they are devoted to fighting for their clients.
“Our team is a real force for good because they are united by a common purpose of providing our clients with the best possible legal representation to safeguard their futures and, following significant growth over recent years, I will be aiming to drive forward our specialist services nationwide.”
Living with cerebral palsy
Annabelle lives with a mild form of cerebral palsy and insists that the condition strengthens her connection with Enable Law clients and provides her team with important insight.
“I am always very conscious that I live with a relatively very mild form of cerebral palsy but I’m often told off for saying that by friends who say I’m doing myself an injustice by playing it down,” Annabelle.
“But it is fair to say that living with cerebral palsy provides me with an additional perspective on life and gives my team a valuable insight which means there is a significant extra dimension to the services we offer.
“When it comes to those everyday activities that people without a disability can just go out and do without much fuss, I have to think and plan more around things as simple as going for a walk to just put a letter in the post box.
“For instance, I have to consider what sort of shoes I’ll stick on depending on how stable I feel that day or what the conditions under-foot are like, especially when it’s icy. So there’s often an additional layer of decision-making for me which means when it comes to legal affairs, I pick up on issues which might seem trivial but are, in fact, extremely important.”
Growing mental capacity team
The mental capacity team continues going from strength to strength with multiple new clients being onboarded in the last year, many referred by case management companies and other solicitors recognising the undoubtedly good offering and client care the firm offers as standard.
Commenting on Annabelle’s promotion, Rob Antrobus, Head of Enable Law, said: “We are all thrilled that Annabelle has agreed to lead our mental capacity team because she embodies the values which are key to our success at Enable Law.
“Annabelle is not only a brilliant lawyer but she is also an inspirational colleague and I know she will ensure Enable Law continues to go from strength to strength because she is dedicated to her clients.
“Annabelle leads a terrific team of mental capacity specialists with a depth of expertise who share her passion about their work and their ambitious outlook for clients and for the firm as a whole, mean they are perfectly positioned to accelerate our mission to delivering exceptional legal service and further expand our capabilities throughout 2025 and beyond.”
