Moving on

PRIVATE PRACTICEPartnershipStarting in Manchester, insurance litigation specialist Paul Large has joined James Chapman & Co following the closure of Hammond Suddards' national insurance team.

Meanwhile, Davis Blank Furniss has merged with Glossop practice AG Taylor & Co, acquiring Tony Taylor as consultant.

Mike Rainford, former head of criminal law at Betesh Fox & Co, has now moved to the commercial fraud department as a partner.

Husband and wife team Christian and Rachel Swinburne, having been associates at Swinburne & Jackson, have both now been appointed partners.

Norfolk firm Hood Vores & Allwood has made Lindsey Harding a partner in the litigation department, dealing mainly with personal injury work.

To the west country, Robin Neill has joined Bevan Ashford as a partner specialising in commercial litigation.

He moves from the City, where he was a partner at Stephenson Harwood.

And in the City, employment specialist Stephen Blunt has joined Clyde & Co's expanding Guildford-based business law group.

He joins as a partner designate from Lawfords, where he headed the employment department.

Meanwhile, Lawfords has appointed Debbie Edwards as a partner in its Nottingham office where she will specialise in industrial action claims.

Kim Walker has joined Covent Garden firm Olswang as a partner, specialising in digital media and e-commerce law, from City firm Biddle.

Mishcon de Reya, hot on the heels of its merger with music and entertainment firm Eatons, has snapped up Daniel Davis to head its insolvency group.

Mr Davis, who joins Mishcon at the end of the month, is currently head of insolvency at soon-to-be dissolved Barnett Alexander Chart.

City giant Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has announced that corporate specialist David Simpson - currently partner at Allen, Allen & Hemsley's Singapore offices - will be joining their Singapore practice.

Employment lawyer Pascale Lagesse is also joining the firm's Paris office from French firm Flichy Lagesse Montanier Ayache.

Fellow major league player Allen & Overy announced the appointment of intellectual property lawyer Sven Klos to its Amsterdam office from Dutch firm Nauta Dutilh.

IT specialist Rachel Burnett has left her partnership at Masons to join the London office of multi-national firm Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn HRK.

Private practice Associates/assistantsChris Blackburn, formerly at Mulcahy Smith of Gateshead, has joined Gateshead based Swinburne & Jackson to assist in the matrimonial department.

Another north-east firm, Ward Hadaway, has appointed Emma Firbank as an assistant in its litigation department from Middlesbrough Crown Prosecution Service.

Six-year qualified litigator Adele Noden has also made the move to the insurance litigation team at Manchester-based James Chapman & Co from Hammond Suddard's folding insurance practice with partner Paul Large (see above).

Sarah Mynes transferred from the Manchester office of Davis Blank Furniss to the Glossop office, heading up an expanded matrimonial department following the merger with AG Taylor & Co.

Manchester and Liverpool-based Davies Wallis Foyster has taken on eight trainee solicitors, boosting its total to 14.

They are: Katy Woolgar, Ansar Ali, Terry Otty, Imran Hussain, Esther Stevens, Tom Higson, Steven Hacking and Karen Gorton.

Hood Vores & Allwood in Norfolk has promoted commercial solicitor Roger Margand to associate.

Property specialist David Power has joined Lee Crowder as an associate from Wragge & Co.

The London office of international finance specialists Debevoise & Plimpton has recruited four new associates.

Shobha George, from Shearman & Sterling, joins the mergers, acquisitions and capital market practice department.

Three joiners to the firm's corporate practice are: Mark van Dam, previously an associate in the Amsterdam office of Dutch firm Houthoff; Sonia O'Brien, formerly of Ashurst Morris Crisp; and Alexander Patsaouras, freshly qualified from Yale.

Finally, ever expanding Olswang has recruited two associates to their defamation practice.

Dan Tench joins from Lovells, and Richard Buckley from Liverpool firm Brabner Holden Banks Wilson.

OTHERDenton Wilde Sapte have seconded planning specialist Stephen Webb to the Central London Partnership to advise on their response to Mayor Ken Livingstone's planning strategy for the capital.

Julia Onslow-Cole, head of CMS Cameron McKenna's business immigration team, has been appointed to the Section on Legal Practice Council of the International Bar Association.

Tanya Goldfarb, also of CMS Cameron McKenna, has been appointed as the UK regional representative of the IBA's immigration committee.