Construction team goes to rival

TOP construction lawyers Winward Fearon & Co have lost two partners and an assistant to SJ Berwin & Co's growing building sector team.

Julian Critchlow and Nicholas Carnell have moved across to form a four-partner unit headed by Ian Insley and Geoff Haley.

They have taken assistant Zakir Mulla with them as SJ Berwin tries to expand its work on major construction projects.

Critchlow said: "The idea is that we put our expertise together with the people here to provide a comprehensive service to our clients. It is an appropriate move for us at this stage in our careers. We want to be part of an operation which is just being set up."

David Raff, head of corporate at Winward Fearon, said the parting was amicable, and added that two experienced project and construction partners, Adrian Luto and Tim Reynolds, had been recruited.

He said the firm was becoming more focused on project and construction work and had two major ex-nationalised utility clients. They were likely to recruit more assistants.