Private practicePartners

Senior appointments abroad grab the attention this week, although a clutch of lateral movements is not far behind.

Following a partnership vote, Jim Baird has become regional managing partner for Asia at Clifford Chance.

Based in Hong Kong, he replaces John East who, after three-and-a-half years in Asia, returns to the UK as chairman-elect of the partnership selection committee.

In addition, private equity lawyer Tim Wright has been promoted to partner in the firm's London office.

Also returning to base from Hong Kong is Herbert Smith's David Willis, to be replaced as office managing partner by head of the Asian construction group, Mark Lloyd-Williams.The recruitment activity is headed up by SJ Berwin, which has attracted mergers and acquisitions lawyer Mark Richardson and his team of three lawyers to its Paris office from the French arm of Andersen Legal - SG Archibald.

In London, Hammond Suddards Edge has lost corporate partner Stuart Fleet to Eversheds.

Tax and trusts specialist Jeffrey Cohen has been recruited by Davenport Lyons from Finers Stephens Innocent.

Manches has strengthened its corporate & technology group with the appointment of Jean-Paul da Costa, who was head of corporate commercial at Piper Smith & Basham.EU and competition lawyer Alasdair Bell - best known for advising European football's governing body UEFA and his role in the Bosman player transfer case - has left US firm White & Case for Olswang.

Also leaving a US firm - this time Coudert Brothers - is property lawyer Christine de Ferrars Green, who is joining the Cambridge office of Mills & Reeve.London firm Campbell Hooper has acquired construction partner Alistair Cutts, who was the in-house lawyer at Carillion Construction.Westminster firm Bircham Dyson Bell now has 35 partners following four promotions: John Dean (property), Neil Emerson (litigation), Richard Langley (litigation) and Carol Martin (company/commercial).

In the east midlands, Nelsons has taken its partnership to 59, with five promotions: Lisa Preece and Marie Wells (personal injury), Jane Sutherland (wills, trusts and probates), and Amanda Jefferies and Andrew Rowell (employment).

There are 19 partners at North Staffordshire firm Knight & Sons following the promotion of Paul Calladine (mines and minerals), Susan Honeyands (corporate and commercial) and Kate Smith (tax and trusts).

Bolton-based Keoghs has promoted four lawyers to partner: Damian Ward and James Heath (insurance fraud), and Alistair Graham and Simon Leighton (insurance litigation), taking the firm's partner total to 25.

Private practiceAssociates/Assistants

Manchester continues to be a hotbed of recruitment activity.

Property lawyer Elizabeth Hartley has joined Cooper Sons Hartley & Williams, leaving Burnley-based Waddington & Sons.

Richard Atha has moved from City shipping firm Holmes Hardingham to become an associate at Rowe Cohen.

Fellow Manchester firm Cobbetts has recruited corporate solicitor Stephen Gaunt from Ford & Warren in Leeds and commercial property assistant Melanie Kirby from Addleshaw Booth & Co.

It has also promoted property lawyer Alison Barton to associate.Also moving to Manchester is Jeff Williams, who has left Stoke-on-Trent firm Rees Jones Huntbach & Phoenix for James Chapman & Co as a senior assistant solicitor in the personal injury department.

Cottrill Stone Lawless has added two solicitors to its personal injury team: Vicken Couligian and Simon Hughes join from Gorvin Smith Fort in Stockport and fellow Manchester firm Lyons Wilson respectively.

Leech & Co has promoted to associate Matthew Connery and Amy Cowen in the road traffic accidents department, and clinical negligence specialist Christine Hadfield.

In nearby Bolton, Keoghs has promoted insurance litigator Pamela Moore to associate in addition to its partnerships (see above).

Also making further promotions (see above), Westminster firm Bircham Dyson Bell has elevated Jesper Christensen (company commercial), Lucy Humberston (litigation) and Simon Painter (litigation) to associates.

Other

Four new local law society chiefs: in Leeds, Jeremy Shulman, chairman of commercial firm Shulmans, has been elected president of Leeds Law Society; Jane Leadbetter, a child care solicitor at Barnsley Council, has taken over at nearby Barnsley Law Society; Sheila Collins - who works at both Truman Moore and Harold G Walker - has been elected the first woman president of Bournemouth and District Law Society; and Arthur Titterton, a partner at Hardy Miles Titterton of Ripley, has become president of Derby & District Law Society.