In the Spotlight: Meet Harriet Lythgo-Smith, Private Client Solicitor
In the second of our In the Spotlight series, where we get to know the people behind Stephen Rimmer LLP, we speak to Harriet Lythgo-Smith, a Senior Associate Solicitor in our Wills & Probate team in Eastbourne.
Harriet joined us in February 2026 after eight years with a Chambers-ranked firm in Lewes, where she built up a wide-ranging caseload of complex estates, trusts and cross-border matters. She advises on Wills, probate, Lasting Powers of Attorney, deputyship applications and the affairs of vulnerable people. Her route into the law was not a conventional one, and she is refreshingly candid about it. She is also, by her own admission, chatty, nosy and firmly of the view that a Will you cannot read and understand is a Will that has not been done properly!
Background and motivation
What drew you to private client work, and what has kept you interested in Wills, probate and powers of attorney?
“The truth is, I fell into it. I was working on reception at a law firm and someone asked if I wanted a job as a private client paralegal, so I said yes. And then I really loved it.
I like talking to people. I am chatty, I am quite loud, and sitting in a room with a client finding out all about their life is interesting to me. I also like knowing what people need. I did a bit of conveyancing and a bit of family law along the way, but reading through a contract and emailing a company never appealed, as there are no people in it. Private client work is all people, and that is why I kept doing it!
People panic about their Will and lasting powers of attorney. I try to make it a nicer experience than they were expecting, and a lot of my clients come out saying they actually had a laugh. That is a good day’s work as far as I am concerned.”
Did you always want to be a lawyer?
“I did when I was younger, although for slightly different reasons. I thought it would be glamorous and that I would be very rich. Sadly, that is not quite the reality of legal life! My mum and dad encouraged me because they wanted me to have a really good career, and people are always impressed when you tell them you are a lawyer. It is not like Suits, but it is a really good job and I am proud to say I am a solicitor. I have worked hard for it, so why shouldn’t I be? Private client was a happy coincidence.”
Before joining Stephen Rimmer you spent time in the private client team of another South East firm. What did you take from that experience?
“Most of my career so far was spent at a firm in Lewes, and it was a steep learning curve. There was a lot of unusual work, including ultra-high net worth clients and assets held abroad. Before that I had never worked with anyone who had any real money, and suddenly I was picking up the phone to someone who casually wanted to make a million-pound gift to each of their children.
It was hard, but I am grateful for it. I have dealt with things I would never otherwise have come across, and I learned from a brilliant team. One of the people I worked with actually wrote the STEP provisions that private client lawyers up and down the country rely on. He did not use them himself, mind you, but he wrote them. You take what you can from every experience, and I took a lot from that one.”
Connection to East Sussex
You trained with a local firm. What is your connection to the area, and what do you enjoy most about working at Stephen Rimmer?
“I live in Eastbourne and I trained here, but I had not worked in the town for a long time. I left an Eastbourne firm when I qualified, spent time in Tunbridge Wells and then eight years in Lewes, so coming back has been a bit of a culture shock, in the nicest possible way. It is a different type of client and a different pace.
What I enjoy most is the team. It is a really lovely firm with a nice feel to it. Everyone seems happy to be here, and when you join a team where people have been in place for a long time, that tells you something. If you go somewhere and nobody has been there longer than three months, it is a red flag. Here it is the opposite. It is a warm, friendly environment and it has been very easy to slot in.”
Work and expertise
What do people often misunderstand about Wills and estate work until they see it up close?
“That it is easy. People think they do not need a Will, or that they can knock one up online, or ask ChatGPT, and it will be fine. It will not.
The thing is, a cheap Will very often turns out to be an expensive one. It is expensive to put right, and it is even more expensive for your family to undo when it goes wrong after you have gone. There is a lot to think about that most people would never consider: what powers you want to include, who needs protecting, and what happens to a more vulnerable family member if you are leaving someone out. It is rarely as black and white as people expect.
I have seen it from both sides. I have seen people challenge Wills and win, and I have seen people challenge Wills and lose. Either way it takes years, it costs a fortune and it tears families apart. Siblings who never speak to each other again. And so often it could all have been avoided if the Will had been done properly in the first place.”
Your work ranges from Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney to deputyship applications and managing the affairs of vulnerable people. What does a typical week look like for you?
“A lot of client meetings, which is the part I like. Around 80% are in person, with a few over Teams or on the phone, but face to face is easier when you are explaining things to someone. We have a great team of trainees and paralegals, so I will usually take one of them along with me and then talk through what needs doing afterwards. The rest of the week is the work that comes out of those meetings. I like to keep Monday clear to catch up on everything from the week before.”
Are you seeing more younger people making Wills?
“It is still mostly older clients, but people are getting younger, and there still are not enough young people doing it. People think, “I have got no money, so what is the point?” But if you have children, if you have a house, if you are not married, you need a Will. If you own a home with a partner and you are not married, would you want them to be able to benefit from it? Probably. It’s all about protecting the people you care about.
I have got a Will. A lot of my friends have not, which drives me mad. They say, “Oh, I really need to do a Will,” and I think: if only you knew someone who did that for a living!”
What is the most rewarding part of your day-to-day job?
“Watching the stress leave someone. People come in panicking about their Will or their powers of attorney, they are worried about the whole process, and by the time they leave you can see the relief. It is sorted, it is being dealt with, and they can stop thinking about it. I like that.
I think people also panic about seeing a solicitor at all. They build it up into a big thing, and it is not. We are only people. I do not want anyone to feel anxious about coming to see me. I want it to be a nice experience, and if I can put their mind at rest on top of that, even better.”
Clients often mention your calm, friendly manner. How do you put someone at ease when they are facing a difficult decision about their estate or a loved one’s affairs?
“Plain English, mainly. I always say to clients: if you cannot read every word of your Will and understand it, I have not done my job. It is not my life going down on paper, it is yours, and you need to understand what you are signing. So I do not fill documents with legalese. I do not need to write “I give, devise and bequeath” when “I give” does exactly the same thing. It is boring for the client because they cannot follow it, and it is boring for me to write.
I also think solicitors get a bad rep. People assume we are there to get as much money out of them as possible. We are not. We are here to help, and to make life a bit easier down the line. Once people realise that, they relax.”
What is the most interesting or memorable matter you have worked on?
“Private client work has a reputation for being quite sedate, but anything can happen, and I have had some strange ones over the years.
One that sticks in my mind was the estate of a lady whose family lived overseas. I ended up in a WhatsApp group with the whole family, who messaged me constantly. She had left an English Will and two codicils, then a Spanish Will that revoked everything, and then a third English codicil that brought the original Will and codicils back to life and revoked the Spanish Will. It was a multi-million pound estate and the ultimate beneficiary was a charity, so everyone was very keen to get it right. Until then I had assumed that once a Will was revoked, that was that. It turns out a later codicil can bring it back.
Another involved an English Will and a Canadian Will running side by side. Nobody had realised that the Canadian Will actually revoked the English one, so when the lady passed away the Canadian Will was the only valid one, and the family in the UK, who had already paid the tax on the basis that they were inheriting a mortgage-free house, were suddenly entitled to nothing. Because Canadian law is so similar to ours, we were able to vary the Canadian estate in favour of the English family and it all came out in the wash. But it shows how much can turn on a single document that nobody has looked at closely enough.”
Life at Stephen Rimmer
Since joining earlier this year, what are your first impressions of the firm, and has anything surprised you?
“It was pretty much what I expected, which is a good thing. I have known Grant for a long time and we had gone back and forth for years about me joining. I thought it would be a really nice, friendly firm, and it is.
What did surprise me was the pricing. People assume solicitors are expensive, and I go on about this a lot, but for the quality of work coming out of the firm it is very good value and very competitive.”
Our values are respect, openness, teamwork and innovation. Which one do you see come through most in day-to-day life here?
“Teamwork, and respect goes hand in hand with it. I can only really speak for Private Client, but we work really well together and we all get on. I have done pretty much every job in a law firm: reception, assistant, paralegal, trainee, junior solicitor and now senior. The only things I have not done are accounts and being a partner. So I have a lot of respect for what everyone in the team does. We would be completely lost without the admin and support side. They do their bit so that we can do ours, and there is a lot of mutual respect for that.”
As a Senior Associate, what are you hoping to bring to the Private Client team over the next year?
“Support, mainly. Being there for the team, helping and training the people coming up behind me, and helping them grow. I really enjoy that part of the job.”
Just for fun
Your profile says most of your time outside work is spent running around after your little boy. When you do get a spare moment, what are you passionate about?
“Running, at the moment! Any time not spent running around after my little boy, who is my favourite person, is spent running on my own. I am training for the Eastbourne Half Marathon in March, which I never thought I would sign up for, and my knees are already complaining. I like the gym and I do a lot with my friends; we are always out doing something. But spare time is limited, and most of it is spent with him, which is exactly how I like it.”
Favourite local lunch spot?
“Yummy Noodle. And I live off coffee from The Foundry. I allow myself at least three treat coffees a week to get me through, and I would not change that.”
What is on your bucket list outside of work?
“I try not to put pressure on it and just see what comes up. But if I survive the half marathon, I am going to do a full one.”
Thank you to Harriet for taking part. Next month we will be shining the spotlight on another member of the Stephen Rimmer team.