Russell
Kelsall

Russell is a Partner and Head of Consumer & Motor Finance. He’s a retail finance expert specialising in contentious and non-contentious issues with particular expertise in consumer, motor, mortgage and asset finance.  Russell acts for a wide range of clients: from clearing banks and building societies, to motor and asset finance providers, to consumer credit providers (including credit cards and point of sale finance), to debt purchasers and to new market entrants.

Russell’s strength is explaining complicated issues in a simplified, direct way. This helps navigate challenges as it ensures he can find solutions to very technical problems. Russell describes his approach as “collaborative; working together always achieves more”. He’s a trusted advisor to many boards and executive committees and draws upon his wealth of practical experience.

Russell works both independently or as part of a larger team (both internal departments and other law firms), allowing him to work successfully with various skill sets and specialisms. This relates to life at Walker Morris as he finds ‘two heads are better than one’ to reach all his client’s needs. Russell doesn’t hold back from ‘taking the bull by the horns’ to get a positive resolution.

Russell comes from a comprehensive school education.  His hard work and effort led to him being a first generation university graduate and achieving his first partnership at the age of 33 (being one of the youngest partners in that global law firm).

Career highlights for Russell include leading a team of lawyers winning ‘Best Law Firm’ for four consecutive leads at the Car Finance Awards.  Russell is also the author of ‘Consumer Credit: Law, Practice & Precedents’ and is the editor of four practitioner loose leaf publication’s: ‘Goode: Consumer Credit Law and Practice’, ‘Butterworths Financial Regulation Service’ (responsible for chapters on CONC, MCOB and BCOBS), ‘Asset and Project Finance: Law and Precedents‘ (responsible for the chapter on equipment leasing) and ‘Practical Lending and Security Precedents‘ (responsible for the chapter on debentures).

Russell has a strong and long-standing relationship with the Finance and Leasing Association. For many years he has delivered training to its members on four of its most popular courses. He also often speaks at meetings and conferences and has supported the delivery of best practice guides and with industry lobbying.