Ashfords sparks Plymouth expansion with hire of General Motors in-houser

West country law firm Ashfords has snared a lawyer from General Motors' (GM) in-house legal department as it looks to double the size of its Plymouth office during the next three years.

Lesley Galvin has joined the Plymouth office of Ashfords, having spent the past 10 years working in the European Legal Operations department of GM.

Ashfords' Plymouth managing partner David Beadel told The Lawyer: "Over the next two to three years we are looking to expand to around 50 lawyers, concentrating on the keys areas of corporate- commercial, real estate, employment and dispute resolution."

During her time at the car manufacturer, Galvin worked on the acquisition of the UK arm of Daewoo. Galvin previously worked at Esso Petroleum and Slaughter and May.

Galvin will head the firm's corporate-commercial de-partment in Plymouth. She told The Lawyer she was attracted to Ashfords by the quality and spread of the work in addition to the chance to build up her own client base.

Ashfords demerged from Bevan Ashford in October 2004. The larger part of the firm relaunched as Bevan Brittan.