Irwin Mitchell fills employment chief role with Pinsents hire

Irwin Mitchell head of business Niall Baker said Flannagan would be responsible for driving forward the firm’s employment practice and creating alignment between its commercial and volume practices.

Baker said: “He joins as an equity partner heading up the practice nationally. We have two strands of employment, bespoke respondent work and a commoditised product offering.” 

Flannagan, who will join the firm’s London office, has been a partner at Pinsent Masons, where he focused on the financial sector, since 2003. 

Irwin Mitchell is making considerable investment in its commercial unit, making strategic appointments and investing in technology to streamline systems.

Baker said: “We want to be able to support commercial litigation support services. We have a lot of good systems [in-house] so we’re not going down the commoditised route. But we are working towards having a system online that clients can log into. We want to create a sales point which differentiates us from the competition.”

In September, the firm turned to SJ Berwin for the hire of real estate chief Jon Vivian and a four-partner team, including Jo Footitt, Lewis Myers and Rob Thompson. They were joined by a further 12 fee-earners, three of whom have become partners at Irwin Mitchell (9 November 2010).