From Making the Tea at 16 to the Top 100 Legal Influencers: Why This Recognition Belongs to More Than Just Me

My name might be on the list, but the voice belongs to far more people than me.

Well, I've got some rather lovely news to share!

I've been named in the Top 100 Legal LinkedInfluencers 2026 – Indies category, ranked number 71.

I started my legal career at 16, making the tea and coffee in a law firm. I certainly never imagined that one day I'd be running my own legal business, employing an incredible team of women, supporting military charities, creating opportunities for military spouses and being recognised nationally for using my voice.

I never set out to become an influencer. I set out to become a good property lawyer. And somewhere along the way, that became about something much bigger.

From the Office Junior to the Top 100

I've spent my entire working life in law. I started at the bottom, learned the profession, built my career and eventually took the leap into consultancy.

For two years, I worked entirely on my own. Today, JB Property Law has grown into a team of women, including military spouses and partners, with a shared commitment to providing a personal, accessible legal service.

We've developed a particular specialism in Armed Forces conveyancing, helping serving personnel, reservists, veterans and their families navigate property transactions around the realities of military life.

But my connection to the Armed Forces didn't begin with my business. It began with my own family. I've been the military girlfriend waiting through deployments. The wife. The mother. And now I'm the wife of a veteran.

Ash served for ten years, and our lives have been shaped by his service in more ways than I could possibly explain in one blog.

When I work with military clients, I don't simply see a property transaction. I see a little piece of my own family's story. And that's why I started speaking publicly about the realities of Armed Forces life.

202,847 Impressions. But It's Who Is Reading That Matters.

When I received my Legal LinkedInfluencers recognition, I decided to look at my LinkedIn analytics. The figures genuinely surprised me. Over the 12 months from 13 October 2025 to 12 October 2026, my LinkedIn activity generated:

For someone who started posting because she had something to say, rather than because she had a marketing strategy, those numbers are quite extraordinary.

But they weren't the figures that affected me most. It was discovering who was actually reading my posts.

The British Army, MOD and Royal Navy Are Among My Readers. According to my LinkedIn readership analytics, 22% of the audience is associated with the Military & Defence sector.

That makes Military & Defence the largest industry category represented.

And when I looked at the organisations represented among my readers, I found something even more meaningful.

I genuinely had to sit and look at that for a moment. The British Army is the number one organisation represented among my readers. The Ministry of Defence is fourth. The Royal Navy is fifth.

Now, I'm not suggesting that everyone in those organisations is reading my posts or that my words are changing government policy. But it does mean something important. The experiences military families trust me to talk about are reaching people within the organisations connected to their lives. And that matters far more to me than the number of likes beneath a LinkedIn post.

Why 71% and 52% Matter More Than My Ranking

There's something rather ironic about being ranked number 71. Because another figure involving the number 71 has been on my mind.

According to the Ministry of Defence's 2026 Tri-Service Families Continuous Attitude Survey, 71% of responding military spouses had encouraged their serving partner to remain in the Armed Forces at least once during the previous year.

Yet 52% did not feel valued.

Just think about that. More than seven in ten had encouraged their partner to continue serving. Yet more than half did not feel valued by the organisation their partner served.

Those findings are from the MOD's own research, not simply my personal opinion.

And yet 79% felt proud of their partner being in the Armed Forces.

That final statistic is particularly important to me. Because it demonstrates something I've been saying for years. You can love military life, be enormously proud of the person who serves and still recognise that the system doesn't always work for the families supporting them.

Those things are not mutually exclusive. I love the Armed Forces community. I'm immensely proud of Ash's service. I'm grateful for the life we've shared. But loving something doesn't mean refusing to acknowledge where improvements are needed.

In fact, I would argue the opposite. Sometimes the people who care most are the ones willing to ask the uncomfortable questions.

Putting Our Commitment Into Practice

Supporting the Armed Forces community isn't simply something we talk about on LinkedIn. It's something we've built into our business.

At JB Property Law, we provide specialist conveyancing services designed around the realities of military life.

We offer a 15% legal fee discount to serving personnel, reservists, veterans and their families. We don't charge an additional legal fee for dealing with Forces Help to Buy. We offer flexible appointments between 7am and 9pm, six days a week, recognising that military clients aren't always available during traditional office hours.

And we actively support military charities. For every Forces Help to Buy matter, we donate £100 to the Duke of Lancaster's Regimental charity. Aimee Summers has also committed to donating £10 from every file she completes to Reading Force, a charity helping military families stay connected through books and shared reading.

Our team includes military spouses and a former reservist, and we understand that military life rarely operates according to a conventional nine-to-five timetable.

Our commitment has also been recognised through the Armed Forces Covenant

But none of these things happened because I wanted to appear on an influencer ranking. They happened because I believe that when you make a promise to a community, you should mean it.

When I say we've got your 6, I mean every word.