Moving On

PRIVATE PRACTICEPartnersThe Yuletide break is well and truly over to judge by the number of partnership announcements this week.Commercial firm Manches leads the way by promoting to partner Matthew Cox, Clare Handley (both property), Vernon Dennis, Ross Risby (both litigation) and Kerry Fretwell (family) in its London office.

Litigator Paul Northwood takes the step up in Oxford.

The firm now has 58 partners.Leaving Manches is John Nicholson, who moves across London to become the fourth partner at family law practice Hughes Fowler Carruthers.

There is significant movement by US firms in London, with Jones Day Reavis & Pogue promoting three partners: Lee Coffey (litigation), Greg Olsen (office head of EU/competition) and Linda Fletcher (office head of real estate) are promoted.New York firm Chadbourne & Parke has hired project finance lawyer Adrian Congdon from Clifford Chance as partner in its London office.

Leaving a US firm is media finance specialist Philip Alberstat, who has swapped Coudert Brothers for the City office of Bristol-based Osborne Clarke.Peter Sewell has been promoted to partner in Morgan Cole's specialist professional indemnity division in London, Fishburn Morgan Cole.City firm Hobson Audley has 14 partners following the recruitment of corporate finance lawyer Donald Stewart.

He was previously general counsel at telecoms companySei-Mitsu.Another corporate finance partner, Keir Gordon, has moved across the City from Rooks Rider to Charles Russell.Goodman Derrick has taken on litigator Richard Gerstein, the former managing partner of Finers Stephens Innocent.In East Anglia, company commercial lawyer Richard Bailey has left Dennis Faulkner & Alsop to become the 14th partner at Norwich firm Steele & Co.Corporate finance partner Glynne Stanfield is to leave Mills & Reeve and join the Cambridge office of Eversheds.Leaving Eversheds is Rupert Hague-Holmes, who moves to Birmingham-based Needham & James as partner in the corporate finance team.Mark Hogarth has left Seven Seas, part of the Merck Pharmaceutical Group, where he was company secretary, to join north-west firm Mace & Jones as a partner.

He will work in the commercial department based at the firm's Liverpool office.Along the M62 in Manchester, construction and dispute resolution expert Colin Moore has left Halliwell Landau to take up partnership at Trowers & Hamlins.There are two new partners in the commercial and projects group at DLA's Leeds office.

Iain Bowler moves from industrial corporate developers Gartland Whalley and Barker, where he was director of corporate finance, while Nick Maltby joins from Pinsent Curtis Biddle.Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett has recruited commercial litigation lawyer Ian Furness as partner from Spencer Ewin & Mulvihull.

He takes the firm's partnership to 22.Abroad, Herbert Smith has recruited corporate partner Gary Lock to its Beijing office from Simmons & Simmons' Shanghai practice.

Also in Beijing, the firm has appointed corporate lawyer Jeremy Xiao as managing partner, following the departure of Terence Grady to its Hong Kong office.Staying in Hong Kong, Clyde & Co has recruited corporate partner Tim Drew from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert's local office.In Europe, Ashurst Morris Crisp has promoted Andreas Zahn to partner in its Frankfurt-based international finance practice.PRIVATE PRACTICEAssociates/ assistantsIn addition to its new partner (see above), Charles Russell has taken on Glafkos Tombolis as a senior associate.

He joins the corporate department from Baker & McKenzie.Cumberland Ellis Peirs has recruited property litigator Chan D'Souza and employment expert Farha Leadbetter as assistants from Lloyd & Associates and ASB Law respectively.Education and public law specialist Douglas Silas has left Levenes to become an associate at the London office of Cheshire firm Alexander Harris.Paul Greatholder has left Denton Wilde Sapte to join the property litigation department of London firm Russell-Cooke.In Essex, Colchester firm Birkett Long has taken on four solicitors.

Tracey Seath and Simon Loome join the corporate transactions team from Gross & Co and Connollys respectively; while Ron Rosenthal joins the property team from Ellisons & Co and Reg Lloyd moves to head of employment from the legal team of insurance company Capita Assistance.Bevan Ashford has strengthened its Bristol-based health and safety team by taking on Rod Hunt as assistant from the legal department of the Environment Agency.On the south coast, Bournemouth firm Lester Aldridge has hired Ann Greaves as an associate.

She joins the planning and development team from West Berkshire Council, where she was principal solicitor.Heading off-shore, litigation lawyer Simon Davies has left City firm Ashurst Morris Crisp to become a solicitor at Guernsey-based Carey Langlois.In the midlands, the Nottingham office of Freethcartwright has expended its planning department with the recruitment of assistant Jenny Donoghue from Shoosmiths.North-west firm Mace & Jones has made further appointments (see above) by scooping up litigation solicitor Emma McAndry from Davies Arnold Cooper.

She will be based in the Manchester office.