Four join Bevan Ashford as Welsh Health folds

The Cardiff office of nat-ional firm Bevan Ashford has taken four lawyers from Welsh Health Legal Services.

Partner Chris Mayers, associate Mark Trillo and solicitors Andrea Thomas and Richard Thomas were all senior members of Welsh Health, which is to be dissolved at the end of March.

Welsh Health was set up by the Welsh Office to provide legal services to Welsh NHS trusts. It is being scrapped as part of a strategy to remove quangos before the start of the new Welsh assembly. The management of Welsh legal services will be taken over by the Glan Clwyd NHS trust.

"We chose to make this move so that we could build on our NHS skills and work within a firm that provides an expanded service to the NHS.

"With Bevan Ashford, which is a nationally recognised health service practice, we will be able to provide a specialist service to the NHS", says Mayers, adding that the practice size will enable it to meet all the NHS's legal needs.

The team, which specialises in mental health and employment law, will join Tessa Shellen, head of Bevan Ashford's NHS team.

"The addition of these four solicitors completes our strategy for providing a full service to the NHS from our Cardiff office," says Shellen. "We are pleased we are able to ensure top healthcare legal skills are retained in Wales."