Hammonds elects McKenna to partnership board

Hammonds’ Leeds partner Catherine McKenna has been elected to the firm’s partnership board, replacing Patrick Somers who is leaving the firm for Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP).

Somers was chosen for the position of UK resident partner when Hammonds set up its partnership board in January this year. But he later resigned from the firm and announced his departure to BLP in April, shortly after Hammonds’ equity partnership voted for a 14-month lock-in.

McKenna, a partner at Hammonds for nine years, heads up the firm’s pensions practice based in Leeds. She joins fellow partners Bernhard Gilbey, Konstantinos Adamantopoulos and Frank Walter-von Gierke on the board, and her term of office is three years.

Managing partner Peter Crossley and senior partner Richard Burns are also board members. The group is responsible for firm strategy, performance and expenditure.