Pinsents raids Hammonds as new lock-in begins

Hammonds has lost its fifth equity partner in two weeks as Manchester corporate head Stephen Levy joins Pinsent Masons.

Levy has been a partner at Hammonds for ten years, and focuses on M&A and private equity work. He will lead Pinsents' corporate team in Manchester.

His departure follows that of international benefits head Jane Marshall to Macfarlanes, property and planning head Chris Marks and finance partner Alex Dell to DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, and Birmingham property head Michael Park to HBJ Gateley Wareing during the past two weeks.

Equity partners had just one month in which to resign from Hammonds following the end of the firm’s 14-month lock-in and today’s (1 August) implementation of new proposals which allow partners to resign only at the end of September and March each year.

Levy’s hire strengthens Pinsents’ Manchester corporate team following the loss of partners Simon Masters and Hannah Kendrick to Eversheds and Paul Johnson to Cobbetts in March.

However Pinsents raided Eversheds for corporate partner Helen Ridge and senior associate Howard Gill, who joined his new firm as a partner, in November and Levy will be working closely with them to develop the practice.

Pinsents Manchester managing partner Carl Garvie told The Lawyer: "Stephen’s a real star. We’ve now got a team that can compete with anybody.”