Howes Percival adds two key hires in rapidly growing commercial team
National law firm Howes Percival has continued the rapid expansion of its commercial team with two key hires.
Howes Percival’s commercial team works across a handful of specialist sectors, conducting a mix of “big ticket” transactional work (procurement and outsourcing, international collaborations) for sector clients and providing day-to-day support to stretched in-house counsel, working as an extension of the client teams and deeply embedded in their businesses.
Paula Dumbill has grown the team from its inception in 2021 to a team of nine dedicated specialists in 2025, including three partners.
Helen Jones is an experienced commercial contracts and transactional intellectual property specialist with extensive in-house experience, most recently in the defence sector, and joins Howes Percival as a legal director.
Helen’s experience spans a wide range of legal, contractual, and compliance matters through all stages of the contract lifecycle, with particular experience in the sale and supply of complex goods and services, international contracts, research and grant funding contracts and technology and licensing. In addition to defence, Helen also has sector experience in health and life sciences.
Sophie Gladwell, who joins the team as an associate solicitor, qualified almost four years ago, working in both private practice with EMW and in-house with Eurostar. She has also completed in-house secondments with Domino’s and MIB whilst working in private practice. Sophie is experienced in both the food and beverage sector and leisure and tourism.
Paula Dumbill, Howes Percival partner and head of commercial commented, “We are delighted to be joined by two lawyers who come from in-house legal teams and who bring with them a ready appreciation of what is important to the clients we are aiming to support. Helen is a highly qualified and experienced commercial solicitor with significant private practice experience, including four years’ experience as an in-house commercial lawyer in a multinational defence group. Helen has a deep understanding of what in-house legal teams are looking for from their external advisers.
“Sophie’s experience in food and beverage and leisure and tourism perfectly complements two of the wider firm’s core sectors, while Helen’s experience in the defence and life science sectors significantly adds to the commercial team’s existing bench strength in sectors we are increasingly serving.
“Lawyers with Helen and Sophie’s expertise in this area seldom become available – it’s far more common for them to go in-house than return to private practice – so I am thrilled they have chosen to continue their careers at Howes Percival, and to give us the opportunity to greatly enhance our offer to clients and in-house legal teams in the technology and innovation space.
“Tech companies face a complex and ever-changing landscape of legal, regulatory and compliance challenges, including industry-specific standards (especially in sectors like defence, aerospace and life sciences), competition laws, export controls and cross-border issues. Tech companies also often rely heavily on IP and are data-rich, so require support on brand and data protection issues and, increasingly, the use of AI.”