MOVING ON

PRIVATE PRACTICE Partners Whatever March is best known for besides the start of Lent and Julius Caesar not watching his back closely enough this one...PRIVATE PRACTICE Partners Whatever March is best known for besides the start of Lent and Julius Caesar not watching his back closely enough this one will not be remembered for the spectacle of hoards of partners moving majestically from old meadows to pastures new.Someone who has ventured out is Graham Williams he leaves City firm Slaughter and May as a lateral hire and joins Farrer & Cos employment and pensions team.

At City firm Richards Butler, Charlie Weller has joined the shipping department from niche shipping practice Jackson Parton.Biotechnology expert Niall Head-Rapson joins London and Birmingham firm Martineau Johnson from Eversheds Nottingham office, where he was head of intellectual property.

Two other IP specialists, Ian Craig and Neil Ackermann, have left Cambridge-based Hewitson Becke & Shaw to join US firm Dorsey & Whitneys London office.

At Addleshaw Booth & Co, Sean Lippell has taken over as head of the firms national corporate finance practice from Jonathan Shorrock, who returns to a full-time client partner role.

Meanwhile, in Leeds, John Howe & Co has recruited family practitioner Jeremy Atkinson from Richmond & Co.

Andrew Evans, who heads the firms personal injury department, was promoted to partner earlier this year.

Richard Havenhand has joined the commercial property department of West Midlands firm George Green Solicitors from Harrison Clark in Worcester.

Two promotions at Manchester-based Leech & Co: Louise Leckie becomes a partner in the commercial law group; Kate Parry is promoted to partner in the personal injury department.

PRIVATE PRACTICEAssociates/ Assistants In Darlington, Close Thornton has recruited Matthew Large as an associate in its personal injury department from Gorman Hamilton in Newcastle.

He is joined by crime and family practitioner Paul Booty, formerly with Terence Carney in Trent, who also becomes an associate.

Ward & Rider in Coventry has recruited personal injury solicitor Anu Kumari from Franklins solicitors in Northampton.

Stevens & Bolton solicitors has recruited company and commercial solicitor Emma Hutton from City firm Norton Rose and employment solicitor Ruth Nodder from South London firm Gregsons.Meanwhile, Daltons Petersfield office has taken on Steve Reading in the personal injury department after completion of his training contract.In Cambridge, Zo Diss has joined Taylor Vinters medical negligence team from Thomson Snell & Passmore in Kent.

Paula Peck, a registered nurse, has also joined the team.

In Bristol, Wards solicitors has recruited four new lawyers: Michael Wyatt (private client) joins from the legal department at North Somerset Council; Bridget Redmond (conveyancing) joins from Town and Country Property Lawyers in Cheltenham; Maria Georgallis (company commercial) joins from Mead Kind in Bristol; and Samantha Peel (conveyancing) returns after an academic break.

Company commercial solicitor Caroline Litster has joined Raworths solicitors in Harrogate from Morton Fraser in Scotland and a short career break. City-based shipping firm Clyde & Co has recruited shipping and insurance litigator Don Soutar.

Mr Soutar joins from Mariserve, based in Florida, where he was in-house counsel dealing with protection and indemnity claims.

International trade expert Elizabeth Leonhardt has joined the firm from Brazilian import/export company MTI Trade.Scott Dorling has left Camden Councils legal department London to join the local government team at City firm Lawrence Graham.Peter Leyland has joined Farleys in Blackburn, where he will head the property law department, from Leyland Molloy.

Neil Irving has joined the Manchester office of Davies Wallis Foysters banking and asset group from the Manchester disqualification unit of the insolvency service.

JUDICIARY The Lord Chancellor has appointed solicitors Paul Simon Shaerf, a property partner at London firm Bircham Dyson Bell, and Harriet Coleman full-time immigration adjudicators in the London region.Solicitors, Valentine James Adamson and Tudor Mansel Garnon have been appointed as full-time chairmen of employment Tribunals in the London north-west region.

Mr Adamson was formerly with Mid Bedfordshire District Council.

Mr Garnon joins from McArdle Cardwell and Mitchell in Sunderland.

OTHER Jonathan Metliss, corporate finance partner at City firm SJ Berwin & Co, has been appointed as an advisory member of Trade Partners UK, a newly established government organisation providing trade support services for UK companies trading overseas.CMS Cameron McKenna partner Pamela Castle has become the first woman to be appointed to the chair of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association.Solicitor Judith Freedman, professor of law at the London School of Law, has become the first chairman of taxation law at the University of Oxford, which is funded by big five accountants KPMG.Michael Biles, currently head of the School of Law at the Southampton Institute, has been appointed the Independent Housing Ombudsman.