PRIVATE PRACTICE
Partners
Lots of change at London aviation law firm Beaumont & Son.
Joint senior partner Sean Gates has left along with partners Daniel Soffin and Adosh Chatrath to launch an aerospace, commercial and private equity law practice, Gates & Partners.
John Balfour has become senior partner of Beaumont & Son, while Neil McGilchrist, who was the other joint senior partner, has taken up the new role of chairman.
The firm said it would be inviting a number of partners to join the equity in May 2004.
Elsewhere in the City, Fladgate Fielder's head of employment David Bickford has moved to take the same role at Goodman Derrick.
Shipping and commodities expert Tim Baker has been made up at Waterson Hicks, now a five-partner firm.
Central London law firm Lee & Pembertons has taken on Hamlins' head of family Rosemary Carter.
She is a former chairwoman of the Solicitors Family Law Association.
Personal injury partner Malcolm Underhill has joined the Uxbridge office of Home Counties firm IBB from Vizards Wyeth in Kent.
Wiltshire practice Wood Awdry & Ford has promoted two partners: Rosalind Oswald (family) in Marlborough, and Martin Short (property) in Chippenham.
Moving over to Swansea, John Collins & Partners has made up agriculture and land specialist Rory Hutchings.
Matthew Hansell is to leave Birmingham's Martineau Johnson in a year to join Mills & Reeve.
He has already been replaced as head of private client by Keith Dudley.
Up on the Wirral, four personal injury lawyers who left Bartlett & Son in Liverpool in May have now set up their own niche practice.
Gillian Brennan, Jan Trainor, Adrian Wynne and Johanna Wynne have formed BTW.
Cobbetts has recruited two employment partners to its Leeds office: Jeremy Emmott from DLA, and Melanie Steed from Hammonds, where she was a senior solicitor.
Over the Channel in Paris, US firm Weil Gotshal & Manges has hired private equity and mergers and acquisitions partner David Aknin from Linklaters, along with senior associate Emmanuelle Henry.
PRIVATE PRACTICE
Associates/assistants
Southampton's Moore & Blatch has hired Pritti Amin as a solicitor to head an 11-strong team in the mortgage repossession department.
She moves from Jeffrey Green Russell in London.
In Wiltshire, Wood Awdry & Ford has promoted Elizabeth Gedye to associate in Chippenham.
She specialises in contentious employment law and civil litigation.
Home Counties firm IBB has taken on employment specialist Aidan Loy as a senior lawyer.
He joins from management consultancy Collinson Grant.
Tim Bacon has joined Hewitsons' Saffron Walden office as a principal property lawyer from Eversheds in Cambridge.
In Birmingham, property litigator Richard Reade has been promoted to associate at Pinsents.
Black country firm George Green has hired commercial litigator James Coles from Clarks in Reading.
A double promotion at Shulmans in Leeds: head of personal injury Joanne Caselaw and commercial litigator Robert Whitehead have both been made associates.
Commercial property specialist Marika Portelli has joined the Barnsley office of Atteys from HLW in Sheffield.
Manchester's Betesh Fox & Co has hired assistant solicitor Mark Higgins as head of its employment department.
He joins from Canter Levin & Berg's St Helens office.
BAR AND BENCH
Jeremy Bennett, formerly a partner at Wolferstans in Plymouth, has become regional chairman of the Appeal Tribunals in the south-east region.
Barrister Nicholas Webb has been appointed a circuit judge on the midland circuit.
He became a recorder in 2000.
Two district judges have been appointed to the south-eastern circuit; Heather Johns, formerly a partner at Johns & Saggar in London, and Christopher Vokes, former partner at Rees Wood Terry in Cardiff.
Paul Thompson, previously a partner at Doncaster's Bridge Sanderson Munro, has become district judge on the midland circuit.
Charles Khan has left Berg & Co in Manchester to become a district judge on the north-eastern circuit.
OTHERS
Wiltshire firm Wood Awdry & Ford has hired property lawyer David Lewis as a full-time consultant in Chippenham.
He joins from Jeary & Lewis, where he was a partner.
The Law Commission has two new recruits.
Matthew Jolley, who was a managing associate at City giant Linklaters, becomes manager of the property and trust law team.
Barrister Joanna Perkins, an academic lawyer who recently completed a pupilage at 3 Stone Buildings, has joined the commercial law and common law team.
Hammonds' Brussels office has taken on Rudi Leleu as a director.
He joins from the European Commission, where he was director-general of trade.
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