Nicola Jane Ewin
1959 - 2008



Tributes have been paid to solicitor Nicola Ewin, who has died of cancer at the age of 48.



Mrs Ewin, who lived in Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire, with her family, was one of the founding partners of law firm Spencer Ewin Mulvihill, based on Kings Road in Harrogate, also in North Yorkshire, and formerly with offices in Leeds.



Originally from East Anglia, Mrs Ewin remained in Leeds after graduating from the city university's law faculty in 1982. She qualified as a solicitor three years later and set up Spencer Ewin Mulvihill in 1987 with fellow solicitors Rory Mulvihill and Chris Spencer.



Mrs Ewin specialised in residential and commercial property law, and also acted as a specialist property law adviser to Barclays Bank.



She continued to use her professional name in business following marriage to her second husband, Gary Whiteman.



Mrs Ewin stepped back from an active role at Spencer Ewin Mulvihill following her diagnosis in December 2006, but continued as a senior consultant for some months. She died at St Leonard's Hospice, York, on 22 February.



Her former colleague and business partner, Rory Mulvihill, said he was privileged to have worked with Mrs Ewin and that her death was a sad loss to the legal profession: 'We were partners for 20 years and, of course, friends. When you have known somebody for that length of time, it is devastating to lose them. Nicola was extremely talented and an excellent solicitor, and I am honoured to have known her.



'Nicola was a devoted wife, mother and daughter, and our most ?sincere condolences go out to her family at this time.'



As well as her husband, Nicola leaves a son, Matthew, and a daughter, Katie, both from her first marriage.



Khalid Shahjahan, partner, Spencer Ewin Mulvihill