Private Practice


Partners



Kicking off in the City, structured real estate finance specialist Daniyal Ansari joins Eversheds as a partner from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.



Addleshaw Goddard expands its project finance and banking capability by hiring Natalie Elphicke as a partner from Denton Wilde Sapte.



Christopher Norton joins Lovells as a partner and head of environmental law; he previously held a similar position at

Baker & McKenzie.



Michael McCarthy joins the London corporate recovery team at Halliwells from Reed Smith Richards Butler, where he was head of the finance team.



Withers makes up five – Paul McGrath (corporate), Christopher Groves, Catherine Hill and Matthew Woods (wealth planning), and Suzanne Todd (family). With four additional partners in the US, the firm has 103 partners worldwide.



In Kent, Sara Williams is promoted from associate to partner at Hatten Wyatt, where she heads the criminal department.



Two partners join Rix & Kay in Uckfield. Frances Pierce is head of the new catastrophic injury and clinical negligence team; she was previously senior associate at Thomson Snell & Passmore in Tunbridge Wells. And David Ashton joins the commercial property department; he was previously a partner and head of the commercial property department at London firm Magrath & Co.



Ruth Smith becomes partner and head of procurement at Pinsent Masons in Birmingham. She joins from Bevan Brittan.



Neil Coombes is promoted to partner in the employment department at Waring & Co in Bolton.





Management



North-west firm Mace & Jones promotes Manchester-based litigation specialist Richard Corran to managing partner. He replaces Lawrence Downey, who steps down after 16 years in the role and will seek election as senior partner.



Alan Benzie, former northern chairman of accountants KPMG, has been appointed chairman of north-west firm DWF.





Associates/Assistants



Private client specialist Colin Watret is promoted to associate at Atherton Godfrey in Doncaster.



Harrogate firm Raworths appoints Fionula Scanlan as an associate in the commercial team.



Jones Myers in Leeds appoints cohabitation and international family law specialist Fiona Gavin; she joins from Harrogate firm Grahame Stowe Bateson.



Two at Forbes are promoted to associate – Kate Humpston (serious and complex claims unit) in the firm’s Blackburn office and Leonie Woods (claimant personal injury) in Accrington.



Simon England and Richard Clitheroe qualify after completing their training contracts at Napthens in Lancashire. They will both work in the commercial property department.



Moving south, employment law specialist Ursula Gibson joins niche firm Julian Taylor in Oxfordshire; she leaves Manches’ office in Oxford.



Lennon & Co in Chesham, Bucks, promotes trainee solicitor Jennifer Sole to associate in the conveyancing team.



Karin Cox-Putker joins Hampshire firm Pinto Potts to head its family law department; she moves from Phillips in Basingstoke.



At Rix & Kay in Uckfield, Sheila Riches becomes an associate solicitor in the catastrophic injury and clinical negligence team. She was previously a senior solicitor at ASB in Brighton.



Osborne Clarke boosts its incentives practice in Bristol by recruiting Susan El Hachmi as an associate; she was previously at CMS Cameron McKenna in London.



London firm Cumberland Ellis recruits Cordelia Brand as head of the private client department; she moves from Manches in Oxford.



Amy Walpole becomes an associate in matrimonial at Rogers & Norton in Norwich.





Consultants



Clinical negligence specialist Gillian Solly joins Davies & Partners in Bristol as a senior consultant; she moves from Russell Jones & Walker, where she was a partner and head of the Bristol office.



Karen Scott joins Rix & Kay as a consultant in the family law team after the Uckfield firm purchased her practice.