Meet... Pauline Stirling

When people join Deeks Evans, they usually stay for a long time and secretary Pauline Stirling is no exception, having been with the firm since 1991.

Meet... Pauline Stirling

Pauline Stirlng

When people join Deeks Evans, they usually stay for a long time and secretary Pauline Stirling is no exception, having been with the firm since 1991.

“I must admit that, when I joined, I needed a job and thought 'I'll accept this one and see what happens' and here I am nearly 30 years later,” she says.

Pauline was born in Plymouth and moved to Scotland at the age of seven. While she hadn't worked in accountancy before joining Deeks Evans, she had spent time in a secretarial role with local government in Greenock, which involved typing legal documents and helping to organise local elections.

When Pauline joined she worked for Partner Peter Delaney and says that while her role hasn't really changed since then, office work has altered dramatically.

“I think the introduction of computers has brought the biggest change,” she says. “The WordPerfect package had just come in when I joined and, over time, accounts have all moved from being simply typed up to being inputted into a computer.”

Today Pauline primarily works for Karen Braddel, who is Deeks Evans' Private Client Partner and Head of Legal Services. Karen has a wealth of experience helping individuals and families mitigate their current and future tax liabilities, ensuring the successful transition of wealth to the next generation.

“My working day involves general admin, transcribing tapes, taking phone calls and welcoming clients to the office, as well as keeping our stationery up-to-date and liaising with cleaners and gardeners etc,” she explains.

Having stayed with the firm for three decades, it's no surprise to hear from Pauline that Deeks Evans is a friendly place to work.

“We're like a family here and we really do all get on,” says Pauline. “I think that clients also find us friendly and straightforward, making tax issues easy to understand.”

She continues: “I work closely with Karen and I have seen how kindly she deals with clients who are at the end of their life or who have just lost a loved one and are talking to us about probate.”

Now Pauline is semi-retired, working two days a week, she enjoys reading, socialising and going to the theatre. Pauline is a trained singer and did very well in singing festivals in both Greenock and Tunbridge Wells, but says she hasn't sung for some time now, so is out of practice.

More recently, she has developed a love of taking cruise holidays. A return trip to Venice and Dubrovnik is next on the agenda, while she's been to destinations including Norway, St Petersburg and the Caribbean previously.