MOVING ON

private practicePartnershipAs the winter nights draw in, partners appear to be staying put rather than venturing out into the chilly job marketplace.

Leading London-based media firm Schilling & Lom managed the most impressive coup with a triple partnership whammy.

Martin Cruddace, head of legal at Mirror Group Newspapers, is joining to specialise in high-profile libel cases, while Gazette columnist Amber Melville-Brown joins from Finers Stephens Innocent, where she was head of defamation.

Peter Goodman - previously a director of sports agency CCS Stellar Management - heads up a new sports practice.City big hitter Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has added four partners to its Milan office.

Massimo Benedettelli (corporate), Marzio Longo (real estate), Bruno Castellini (securities and banking) and Renato Paternollo (tax) all join from leading Italian firm Chiomenti Studio Legale.Top US firm Shearman & Sterling has added an English tax practice to its London office with the recruitment of Allen & Overy partner Michael McGowan.Corporate expert Ian Wilson has joined Brighton-based DMH as a partner.

He was previously at City firm Stephenson Harwood before setting up and eventually selling his own business.East Sussex-based niche private client and commercial practice Adams & Remers has a new partner in Lewes: tax and trusts expert Francis Nation-Dixon, previously at Farrer & Co.Also leaving Farrer & Co is corporate lawyer Robert Foster, who is switching to Oxford firm Linnells.Beachcroft Wansbroughs has boosted its Bristol office with the appointment of litigation specialist James Morris, previously a partner at Palser Grossman.Newcastle firm Ward Hadaway has made a double swoop on Eversheds for construction specialist Jonathan Marshall and property expert Roger Nankervis.

PRIVATE PRACTICEAssociates/assistantsManchester firm James Chapman has kept on four newly qualified assistants: Matthew Bennett and Ed Canty (commercial), Helen Briggs (personal injury) and Julia Roper (professional indemnity).

Fellow Manchester firm Chaffe Street has brought in corporate/commercial associate Ruth Jones from Linder Myers.

She is to take the lead in the firm's work for The Motor Vehicle Repairers Association.Cheshire-based health litigation specialist firm Alexander Harris has promoted clinical negligence specialist Auriana Griffiths to associate.

Yorkshire firm Rollits has appointed newly qualified solicitors Carla Bennett and Tom Morrison as assistants in the company and commercial department.Two assistants join the new partners at Ward Hadaway (see above).

Andrew Talbot, previously at Eversheds, will be in the commercial department with Andrew Barnes, who joins from Cheshire firm Bowcock Cuerden.Midlands firm Talbots has three new assistants: Ron Thomas (family) joins from James Pearce in Birmingham; Mark Sheward (criminal) from Fawcett & Pattni in Walsall; and, civil litigator Trevor Russell from Telford firm Gwynnes.Also in the midlands, commercial property lawyer Steven Petty has joined the Nuneaton office of Alsters from Lodders.East Anglian firm Cunningham John has brought in conveyancer Isobel Rhodes from Great Yarmouth-based Norton Peskett.Criminal advocate Richard Cooper has joined Southend firm TMK (formerly Twitchen Musters & Kelly) from Westcliff-based Jefferies.

He brings the number of criminal lawyers in TMK up to 14, which the firm says makes it the largest criminal practice in Essex.In Welwyn, personal injury specialist Manjit Sansi has left Paul Berg & Taylor to become an associate at fellow Hertfordshire firm Swinburn Chandler-Smith.Reading firm Pitmans has appointed Robert Foote as an assistant in its commercial litigation and insolvency department.

Formerly a barrister, he joins from City firm Dechert.Leaving Reading, and specifically Field Seymour Parkes, is corporate and commercial assistant Alexandra Graydon, who has joined the Winchester office of Dutton Gregory.

Slough firm Harris & Cartwright has taken on seven newly qualified solicitors: Dominic Pisano (family), Arani Yogadeva (personal injury), Jackie Revell (commercial), Alex Haider (personal injury), Inderjit Ahitan (wills, probate & trusts), Michelle Risby (commercial) and Darren Higginson (personal injury).

Further south-west, Plymouth firm Foot Anstey Sargent has recruited assistant Mark Grassam (private client) from major regional practice Clarke Willmott & Clarke, and Louise McCartney (employment) from London firm Hodge Jones & Allen.Devon firm Tozers now has ten associates after promoting trusts and estates lawyer Helen Clarke and family lawyer Ian Walker.The London office of Bristol-based Bevan Ashford has appointed housing specialist Charlotte Cook to strengthen its social care team.

She joins from City firm Trowers & Hamlins.Also in the City, SJ Berwin has scooped up Angela Stallard from Ashurst Morris Crisp to join its reconstruction and insolvency group.And the London office of US firm Debevoise & Plimpton has three new associates from magic circle firms: senior finance lawyer Alan Davies from Allen & Overy, senior private equity lawyer Dale Gabbert from Freshfields and corporate specialist Tim Martin from Linklaters.