MOVING ON

PRIVATE PRACTICEPartnershipAs the recruitment market gets back into gear, the Home Counties are at the centre of what activity there has been.David Whibley, Xerox Europe's head of legal, has left in-house for partnership at the Oxford office of Morgan Cole, where he will work in the business services division, specialising in competition.In Reading, corporate and insolvency partner David Few has left Clarks for Blandy & Blandy, while Rowberry Morris has made up two partners: Susan Robertson, heads the civil and commercial litigation department, and Richard O'Hagan, heads the personal injury department.

Rowberry Morris now has eight partners.In London, DLA has appointed Catherine Usher as its office managing partner in succession to Paul Nicholls, who died suddenly last October.

Her role of location head of real estate in London has been taken by Richard Crossfield.Ince & Co has made up barrister-turned-solicitor Elliot Woodruff to partner.

The dry shipping and commercial litigation specialist is relocating from London to New York.

Other London news is dominated by US firms.

McDermott Will & Emery has made up three partners: Rafi Azim-Khan (IP/IT), Chris Forrest (banking and financial services) and Alison Wetherfield (employment).

The office now has 16 partners.Nick Alfille, a member of Jones Day Reavis & Pogue's business transactions and corporate finance practice, has become the firm's fifth London partner.One-time Druces & Attlee partner Charles Attlee has taken over as lead partner of US firm Bryan Cave's London office.

Mr Attlee, who joined Bryan Cave in 1999, succeeds Harold Blatt, who becomes non-executive senior partner in London.Surrey firm Mundays has made up corporate lawyer Nicola Vincent to partner.

She joined the firm in June from Rawlison & Butler.The Birmingham office of Eversheds has recruited house building expert Philip Medford from Kent Jones & Done in Stoke-on-Trent, where he was an equity partner and head of property.Manchester firm Chaffe Street has created a three-member management committee to run the 16-partner firm: Robert Street, who founded the firm in 1983, corporate lawyer Mark Brandwood and corporate recovery partner Shn Spencer.

All three will continue fee-earning.

PRIVATE PRACTICEAssociates/AssistantsBack in Reading, Nabarro Nathanson has boosted its office with a slew of new recruits and relocations from London; in total one partner (head of property Andrew Banton, from London), nine assistants and four trainees have joined.

The six newly recruited assistants are:l Rupert Copeman-Hill (corporate, from Allen & Overy);l Sean Lynch (senior IT lawyer, from Brookfields);l Jackie McNamara (IT/IP, from Brookfields);l Heather Redman (senior solicitor, private client, from Morgan Cole);l Sarah Weston (commercial, from Linklaters); andl Natalie Wells (charity, from Withers).Portsmouth firm Coffin Mew & Clover has brought in housing litigator Sarah Deighton from Birmingham-based housing specialist firm Anthony Collins.The Leeds office of Denison Till has added employment lawyer Simon Shepherd from Hammond Suddards Edge.Newcastle firm Ward Hadaway has taken on four of its newly qualifieds: Peter Ashcroft (commercial litigation), Sarah Catherwood (employment), Judith Newcomb (health care) and Kate Stoker (commercial property).The London office of Thomas Cooper & Stibbard has expanded its banking team with the addition of Dionysios Flambouras.

He moves from EFG Eurobank Ergasias, where he worked as a legal adviser within the trade finance department.Competition lawyer Greg Olsen has left Clifford Chance, where he had recently been acting as General Electric's European competition counsel, for US firm Jones Day Reavis & Pogue.

OTHERBaker & McKenzie partner Raffaele Rizzi has left to join Credit Suisse First Boston in London as a director and head of Italian legal affairs.Richard Thomas, a partner at Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn, has been seconded as part-time European general counsel to its client GorillaPark, an accelerator company.Insolvency lawyer Julian Trahair, who was at Bond Pearce in Plymouth before a year out, has joined Foot Anstey Sargent as a consultant following a spell as a locum there.Manchester United's solicitor, Maurice Watkins, who is also senior partner of James Chapman & Co, has been appointed local director in the north-west by private bank Coutts & Co.Finance lawyer Robert Dibble, a former Royal Navy commander and now a partner in the London office of US firm LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae, has been appointed chairman of the Dover Harbour Board.Sandy Henderson, who was an employment partner at CMS Cameron McKenna before moving into public relations, has joined public relations consultancy Fishburn Hedges.

CORRECTIONRayner de Wolfe has recruited Sebastians litigator Vivian Abboud Davies, not as statedin [2001] Gazette, 5 January, 8).