Addleshaws boosts employment team

The arrival of former Manches senior partner and employment head Alasdair Simpson at Addleshaw Goddard last week will kickstart an expansion in the national firm's London employment team, a spokesman claimed.

Simpson, 36 years at Manches, has committed to Addleshaws for five years. He described his new role as "a challenge, unfettered from management". The arrival of an acknowledged expert on boardroom employment issues will also support the firm's ambition of increasing its penetration among FTSE 100 and 350 companies.

Simpson said he had always intended to leave Manches after stepping down as senior partner in February this year. "The fact that Jane (Simpson) was prepared to take on the chairman position made me comfortable that the firm was in safe hands," he added.

Addleshaws' national em-ployment group has doubled in size every two years for the past six years. Manches partner Jane Amphlett and senior associate Richard Yeomans, who will also be joining Addleshaws, are "part of our strategy of continued growth", added the spokesman.

Meanwhile, Manches is restructuring its employment team. Associate Sarah Johnson will join the partnership at the end of the year. She will become the fourth partner in the revamped, 10-lawyer group, now headed by Jonathan Maude.

Jane Simpson, the firm's chairman, said that she had been "expecting" and "preparing for" her former husband's departure.