The chairman of national law firm Clarke Willmott has been named Lawyer of the Year at a prestigious awards ceremony in Southampton.
Kelvin Balmont was recognised at the South Coast Deals Awards 2025, held at the Hilton Utilita Bowl, home of Hampshire County Cricket Club.
In the past 12 months Kelvin – who has been with Clarke Willmott for over 21 years and heads up the firm’s corporate team in Southampton – has led on several major deals in the region.
These include the £100 million sale of Hartford Care Group to a joint venture between Foundation Partners and Deer Capital; the merger of Langdowns DFK Accountants with fellow accountancy firm Shaw Gibbs; and the sale of commercial finance and risk management specialist Hilton-Baird Group to FRP Advisory.
Kelvin’s fellow Southampton corporate partner Richard Swain was also shortlisted in the Lawyer of the Year category, as was Clarke Willmott for Corporate Law Firm of the Year.
The awards judges commented that Kelvin Balmont had “delivered a range of excellent commercial deals, demonstrating outstanding commercial awareness and exceptional legal counsel with a calm, client-centric approach.”
“It’s a tremendous honour to have been named Lawyer of the Year at the South Coast Deals Awards but the real achievement for the team is to have been recognised across multiple categories,” says Kelvin Balmont.
“This is testament to the skill, dedication and commercial focus of our corporate team and the trust our clients place in us to deliver complex, high-value deals, at a time when we continue to grow with the recent addition of two new corporate lawyers in the shape of Marc Shevlin and Dean Outten.”
Clarke Willmott’s corporate and commercial team act for businesses of all sizes on all aspects of corporate law including mergers and acquisitions; restructuring & insolvency; partnerships, joint ventures and shareholder agreements; private equity; corporate tax; and franchising.
