Moving on

PRIVATE PRACTICE

Partners

Plenty of movement in the large City firms this week, both at home and abroad.

Lovells leads the way in the partnership round, promoting 19 lawyers to take the world-wide total to 334.

The nine in London are: Penny Angell and Adam Freeman (banking), Lawson Caisley (corporate), Brian Carne (securitisations), Stuart Hill (insurance), Matthew Levitt (EU), Lisa Mayhew and Mark Taylor (employment) and David Sullivan (corporate insurance).

In the firm's Moscow office, Oxana Balayan joins as partner and head of the Russian corporate team from German firm Beiten Burkhardt Mittl & Wegener, bringing with her a team of three associates.

The Moscow finance practice has been strengthened with the secondment of partner Chris Owen from London.

Ashurst Morris Crisp has recruited two competition lawyers to its Brussels office from Belgian firm Liedekerke.

Alexandre Vandencasteele and Denis Waelbroeck both join as partners.

Even further afield, in Hong Kong, Clifford Chance has snapped up capital markets and corporate partner Steven Xiang to its Shanghai office from US firm Pillsbury Winthrop.

Back in the City, the Vizards Wyeth pensions department has moved en masse to the London office of south-east firm Thomas Eggar Church Adams.

Graham Chrystie and Patric Sankey-Barker join as partners along with solicitors Michael Shepherd and Vernon Holgate.

Thomas Cooper & Stibbard has captured shipping and aviation partner Alfred Merckx from Sinclair Roche & Temperley.

Hobson Audley has recruited intellectual property specialist Michael Cover from Mishcon de Reya to become its 14th partner.

Leaving London is private finance initiative (PFI) specialist Giles Clifford, who has moved to the Oxford office of Manches from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

He joins as partner and head of the PFI department.

Elsewhere in the Thames Valley, Slough firm Harris Cartwright has promoted conveyancer Richard Palmer, taking the partnership to nine.

Three promotions at Tunbridge Wells firm Cripps Harries Hall: Mike Scott (dispute resolution), Nick Austen (corporate) and Fiona McIntosh (private client).

The firm now has 32 partners.

Employment lawyer Oliver Pryke has been promoted to partner at Cambridge firm Taylor Vinters.

In the midlands, Gateley Wareing has recruited David Lloyd Jones from Hammond Suddards Edge as a construction partner in its Birmingham office.

Wallsall firm Enoch Evans has ten partners following the promotion of commercial specialist Laura Waldron.

Childcare and adoption law specialist Doug Leach has been promoted to partner at Sheffield-based Howells, taking the firm's total to 13.

Howells also has a new managing partner, with criminal lawyer John Gibson taking over from Jonathan Whybrow, who returns to heading the family department.

A 50% rise in the partnership of Leeds firm McCormicks to 12 partners following the elevation of Sara Rogers (trusts), Stephen Proctor (commercial property), Rob Rode (fraud) and David Arundel (corporate recovery).

Leeds agricultural and environmental firm Bodnar & Co has scooped up Nick Peterken as a partner from Simpson Millar.

In the north-west, the Stockton-on-Tees office of Dickinson Dees has a new head of its private client team following the arrival of partner Margaret Simpson from Archers.

Criminal lawyer Stephen Kettlewell has taken the step up to become the sixth partner at Durham firm Swinburne Maddison.

PRIVATE PRACTICE

Associates/assistants

In Slough, Owen White has promoted Lindsay Holland to associate in the commercial property team and recruited company assistant Ricky Sidhu from Worcester firm Harrison Clarke.

Surrey firm Robbins Olivey has brought in corporate lawyers Tom Lowry and James Thorne as assistants from Herrington & Carmichael and Hart Brown respectively.

There is further activity at Cambridge's Taylor Vinters (see above), with intellectual property lawyer David Rainford, family specialist Fiona Bethel and construction expert Tim Hall all promoted to associate.

Andrew Ryan has left Manchester firm Halliwell Landau to become a solicitor and head of the commercial disputes resolution department at Altrincham-based Neil Myerson.

Black country firm Waldrons has brought in family solicitor Catherine Dolton from Palmers.

Corporate commercial specialist Tracey Zobenica, only the third member of the Arizona bar in the US to qualify as an English solicitor, has relocated to the London office of Bryan Cave.

In addition to its new international partners, Ashurst Morris Crisp has recruited Dr Harold Hohmann as head of the newly formed public law team at its Frankfurt office.

He joins from White & Case, Feddersen.