Private PracticePartnershipsWhile the partnership promotion round grinds on, there has also been a huge amount of lateral hiring.City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse has brought in Jonathan Radcliffe from Beachcroft Wansbroughs to head its patents team, while projects partner Lawrence Bruce has been recruited from US firm Buchanan Ingersoll.Following the merger between Biddle and Pinsent Curtis, Biddle's former senior partner, Martin Winter, has joined Taylor Joynson Garrett as a private equity partner.City firm Moorhead James has acquired partner Edward Wheen and five other fee-earners from Pullig & Co - representing most of Pullig's litigation team - adding insolvency expertise in particular.Leading charities lawyer Anne-Marie Piper has left City firm Paisner & Co as it merges with Berwin Leighton, for Farrer & Co.Property partner Raymond Segal has joined Goodman Derrick from Finers Stephens Innocent.Mayfair firm Gordon Dadds has recruited company/commercial partner David Mills from Withers; he was managing partner of Mackenzie Mills, which merged with Withers in 1995.Watson Farley & Williams has elected litigation head Michael Greville as managing partner, replacing David Warder, who is returning to full-time client work in the finance team.There have also been a spate of international movements: US firm Chadbourne & Parke has relocated corporate finance partner Claude Serfilippi to its London office.

Tom Thesing has been promoted to partner at the London office of newly merged US firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood.

Relocating from London are Steven Goodman, now senior partner for Asia and head of Denton Wilde Sapte's Hong Kong office, and Neil Cuthbert - who becomes managing partner in the Dubai branch and head of banking and projects in the Middle East.Norton Rose has recruited tax expert Bertrand Dussert from French firm Bureau Francis Lefebvre to its Paris office, where Tim Howard has been appointed head of the international arbitration practice in succession to Michael Lee, who is shifting over to the Bar (see [2001] Gazette, 3 May, 6).

In Norton Rose's Brussels office, Michael Jrgen Werner joins as a competition partner from German firm Gaedertz; while both Neil Poland (asset finance) and Milly Ayliffe (rail) have been promoted to partner back in London.Heading the spate of new partnerships is DLA, with 23 out of 27 based domestically.

They are:l London - Emma Menzies (banking), Paul de la Pena (business support and restructuring), Colin Wilson (commercial and projects), Sue Fanning and Anne Mannix (both human resources), Ian Wright (insurance), Andrew Dodd (litigation), and Gary Paddison (real estate);l Birmingham - Catherine Burke and Sarah Gunton (commercial and projects), Charles Cook (corporate), David Sykes and Sandra Wallace (human resources), and Rob Norris (real estate);l Sheffield - Alan Chalmers (human resources);l Manchester - James Kerrigan and Jonathan Watkins (corporate), Mark Leach (human resources), Catherine Grant (insurance), Tim Buckingham and Jonathan Eatough (litigation), and Andrew Piatt (real estate);l Leeds - Adam Ibrahim (litigation).DLA has also promoted 51 solicitors to associate, taking its total number of associates to 209.Hammond Suddards Edge's 21 new partners mean it has 213 in total:l London - Richard Cooke and David Savage (construction and engineering), Charles Hodder and Francesca Fox (commercial property), Peter Millichip (sports), Susan Pemberton and Caroline Terry (commercial dispute resolution) and Jay Doraisamy (pensions);l Birmingham - Joanne Bligh and Katie Silvester (corporate finance), Mark Harris, Mike Trainer and Ray Simpson (all commercial property) and Ian Welland (commercial insurance);l Manchester - Jane Haxby (corporate finance), Andrew Macleod (commercial insurance), Fiona Sutherland (corporate tax) and Michael Isaacs (commercial dispute resolution);l Leeds - Kamlesh Parmar (corporate finance) and Jason Ford (commercial insurance);l Brussels - Fay Stroud (European law).Leona Ahmed, Lisa Thompson and Lorraine Ufland have been promoted to partners in City firm Lawrence Graham's property department, taking the firm to 81 partners.Laytons has taken its partnership to 33, with six promotions.

Will Slater (dispute resolution and litigation) is based in the firm's London office, John Morgan (construction) and Sarah Dawson (company/commercial) in Bristol, while Simon Emmerson (dispute resolution and litigation), John Quibell (company/commercial) and Zo Melville-Harris (property) work in Guildford.Maidstone firm Brachers has promoted Tim Craton and Nick Rennie to partner in the corporate and private client groups respectively.Cambridge firm Taylor Vinters has taken its partnership tally to 26 with six promotions: James Brownlie (construction), Christopher Falvey (commercial disputes), Quentin Golder (corporate finance), Michaela Henson (commercial property), James Packer (personal injury) and Sarah Sharratt (commercial disputes).In nearby Peterborough, Michael Blank (commercial property) and John Macaulay (employment and employee benefits) have been promoted to partner at Greenwoods.

David Cranfield has followed fellow Shoosmiths corporate partner Chris Hill in leaving Northampton to become a partner in the Coventry office of US/UK firm Reed Smith Warner Cranston.Yorkshire firm Berwin Bloomer has made litigator Neil Largen a partner.Newcastle firm Samuel Phillips & Co has made up Jenny Goldstein (children and family) and Rod Findlay (clinical negligence) and now has five partners.