PRIVATE PRACTICE


Partners



David Semmens: joins Trowers as a partner Three new partners for the Manchester office of north-west firm Mace & Jones lead the way this week. David Clinch (corporate), moves from Halliwells, while property partners Robert Harris and Elizabeth Mackay leave Wacks Caller.


Across the Pennines, there is a new niche intellectual property practice in York. Pemberton Reid has two partners – Ailsa Pemberton and Kate Reid – previously an assistant and associate respectively at Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett.



David Vaughan-Birch has been promoted to partner and head of commercial litigation at Nottingham firm Cleggs.



The Solihull office of Alexander Harris has hired one-time nurse Louise Hunt as a clinical negligence partner. She joins from Nottingham firm Freethcartwright.



David Clinch: corporate partner at Mace & JonesTwo more new firms, this time in the capital. David Josiah-Lake has left south London firm Fisher Meredith, where he was a partner, to set up family law firm Josiah-Lake Solicitors, based in Soho, central London.


Corporate asistant Shainul Kassam has left Memery Crystal after five years to set up her own niche corporate finance practice, Fortune Law.



In the City, David Semmens, formerly head of private client in the London office of Kidd Rapinet, has left to join Trowers & Hamlins as a partner.



Another private client lawyer, contentious trust and estate specialist Alison Meek, is to swap Boodle Hatfield for Speechly Bircham in early 2005.



Davies Arnold Cooper has named Nish Kanwar as an associate partner in its commercial litigation department. He joins from the City office of Davies Lavery, where he was a partner.



Property and commercial litigation lawyer Samantha Bone has been made up at niche central London firm Wallace.



PRIVATE PRACTICE


Associates / assistants



Lorna Crawford: family law solicitor at HiggsA lot of action in the midlands this week. Birmingham firm ESH Solicitors has recruited Peter Heath and Peter Martin, former partners of Heath Martin, to head its residential conveyancing and matrimonial teams respectively.


Also in Birmingham, commercial property assistant Joanna Lee moves from Needham & James to Anthony Collins.



Real estate associate Toby Askin has left Eversheds for Wragge & Co.



Michelle Gavin has been promoted to associate in the private client department of Solihull firm Standley & Company.



Property assistant James Gwillams has moved from Birmingham’s Davidsons Solicitors to the Hagley office of Talbots.



Toby Askin: real estate associate at WraggesElsewhere in the Black Country, Higgs & Sons’ Dudley office has added family law solicitor Lorna Crawford from Worcester firm Thursfields.


Cheshire firm Forshaws has two new conveyancing solicitors: Paula Dunn moves from Mace & Jones, while Sarah Barnes shifts from Lawson Coppock & Hart.



Jacqueline Backhaus, previously at Hewitsons in Cambridge, has joined City firm Davies Arnold Cooper as a senior solicitor in the town and country planning unit of the property department.



Regional firm Mills & Reeve has promoted 14 of its lawyers to associate. They are: Helen Bolton and Alison Davies (PFI/projects); Stuart Craig (corporate); Wendy Smith and in-house barrister Richard Sykes (education and public law); Caitlin Jenkins (matrimonial); Nicola Dernie and Gregory Laming (private client tax); Andrew Hipper, Neil Frankland, Virginia Hickley and Sarah Hunter (defendant professional indemnity); Dawn Braithwaite (litigation); and Nathan Holden (local government).



In London, Wallace has recruited newly qualified Leigh Shapiro from Kendall Freeman to join its property litigation team.



To the sunnier climes of the British Virgin Islands, where Walker Smiths has hired three English lawyers: Simon Schilder (corporate) joins from City firm Lovells, Donal Blaney (litigation) from Field Seymour Parkes in Reading, and barrister Clare-Louise Whiley (litigation) from magic circle firm Allen & Overy.



OTHER


Shainul Kassam: sets up corporate law firmDavid Fryer, formerly managing partner of leading home counties law firm Taylor Walton, has joined BigHand – the provider of digital dictation software to law firms – as its chief operating officer. He will head all of BigHand’s customer-facing operations departments, together with finance and general management.


Well-known legal academic Professor Avrom Sherr has been appointed director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, part of the University of London. He succeeds Professor Barry Rider, who retired earlier this year. Professor Sherr qualified as a commercial litigation solicitor at Coward (now Clifford) Chance, moving into academia in 1974.



To submit an entry to the Moving On section, send an e-mail to Moving-On@lawsociety.org.uk including the following details: name, practice area, name and location of new and previous firm or company (indicating whether you have moved directly from the previous firm) and current and previous job title (for example, partner or assistant). Any photos must be in colour and of a minimum resolution of 300dpi, sent in jpeg format. Alternatively, you may send a high quality print to the News Editor, Law Society’s Gazette, 7th Floor, Fox Court, 14 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8HN.