On the move
Chris Hutchings, co-founder of M Law, has joined specialist West End media firm Hamlins as a partner in its entertainment, media and IP department.
Chris Hutchings
Move of the week
The hire is aimed at developing the media side of the firm’s business. In his new role Hutchings has already won instructions from a number of clients, including Hello! magazine in a complaint against a national newspaper.
He left Charles Russell alongside head of music Matthew Higden to launch M Law in 2003.
UK
LONDON
Winckworth Sherwood has appointed Clifford Chance senior associate Louise
Leaver as a partner in its banking and finance practice.
Memery Crystal has hired two new assistants. Jeremy Webster joins the tax group from Addleshaw Goddard and Hadeel Mahdi-King arrives from Allen & Overy into Memery Crystal’s dispute resolution team.
South
Birketts has grown its Ipswich office following a pair of appointments. Andrew Tubb has joined as an associate in the corporate department, while consultant barrister Rebecca Wastall has beefed up the firm’s corporate criminal defence team.
Midlands
Needham & James property partner Alison Wacey has joined Warwickshire firm Lodders as a consultant in its Stratford-upon-Avon residential property team.
Former Clarke Willmott HR director Joanna Parker has been brought in by Midlands firm Higgs and Sons as HR director. Parker left Clarke Wilmott earlier this year.
North
Manchester firm Simpson Millar has made two new appointments in its holiday law practice. Group litigation manager Paul Stevens has joined from the legal team at Thomas Cook, while solicitor James Blower joins the practice having qualified with the firm earlier in the year.
Leeds firm Shulmans had hired Andrew Jackson associate Lee Stephens as a solicitor
in its employment team.
North West firm Stephensons Solicitors has grown its specialist road traffic team with
the hire of two lawyers. Martyn Walsh and Carl Johnson have both joined the firm as solicitors from Carter Moore and Byrne Frodsham & Co respectively.
Europe
Salans has appointed Hammonds counsel Professor David O’Keefe as a senior counsel in its EU competition group. O’Keefe, an emeritus professor of European Law at University College London, will work across the firm’s Brussels and London offices.
German firm Noerr has strengthened its banking and finance arm with the recruitment
of Florian Bentele as a partner. Bentele was previously a senior associate at Hengeler Mueller, where his practice was centred on bank regulatory and investment law.
Nordic powerhouse Mannheimer Swartling has elected a new managing partner and promoted three lawyers to partner. Banking and finance partner Jan Dernestam
will take over as managing partner at the firm next April, succeeding Stefan Brocker, who has held the post since 2005. Meanwhile, M&A lawyers Isabella Ramsay and Nina Svensson have been made partners, with dispute resolution expert Nils Eliasson promoted to local partner.
Asia and Middle East
Kirkland & Ellis private equity partner Michel Debolt has relocated from London to Hong Kong in a boost for the US firm’s Asian private equity offering. Kirkland now has 16 private equity fee-earners across its Hong Kong and Shanghai offices.
US
Nixon Peabody has named Craig Mills as its new global head of finance. Mills will replace Mats Carlton in the role after Carlton was one of a clutch of partners who left the firm to join Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman earlier in the year.
Offshore
Carey Olsen has hiked its Guernsey corporate offering with the hire of Bedell Cristin corporate partner Christopher Anderson. An investment funds, insurance and reinsurance expert, Anderson’s career includes stints at Clifford Chance in London and Clayton Utz in Sydney before moving to Guernsey with Ozannes in 2002.
In-house
Vinson & Elkins finance partner Raminder Singh has left the practice to take over as general counsel at India-based conglomerate Essar Global. Singh will be based in London and is expected to help the growth of the group’s domestic legal team.
The Bar
Simon Goldsone of 2 Temple Gardens has become the latest recruit for 4 Pump Court.
The latter set has grown in the past two years, with Terence Bergin, Jonathan Lewis and Luek Wygas all joining during that time. Goldstone’s practice is focused primarily on banking, commercial fraud, professional negligence and insurance and reinsurance.
