Move of the week

• Gibbs has 20 years’ experience working on all types of ­commercial ­disputes work on boardroom issues, as well as shareholder, partnership and professional negligence and general ­contract litigation. Last year Napthens also hired DWF partners Jane Haymes and Keith Melling, who joined as head of corporate.

UK

Midlands

• Halliwells has strengthened its family team with the appointment of Esther Edmondson. She joins the firm’s Manchester office as an assistant solicitor from Berg Legal, where she specialised in high net-worth family cases.
• Birketts has announced the appointment of commercial property partner Kath Herbert in its Cambridge office. She joins from Eversheds, where she headed the development and ­regeneration team.

North

• Morecrofts has welcomed former president of Liverpool Law Society Donal Bannon as a ­partner in its Liverpool office. Bannon has acted for ­liquidators, administrators and receivers on the sale of property and litigation issues and has assisted partners and owners of businesses on exit strategies.
• Comic Relief’s first ever in-house lawyer has joined Ward Hadaway. Fiona Wharton worked at the charity for four years, advising on a wide range of issues. She will now work as an associate in Ward Hadaway’s charities team.
• Professor of law and director of research at ­Nottingham Law School (NLS) Mary Seneviratne has been appointed to the Administrative ­Justice & Tribunals Council (AJTC) by Lord ­Chancellor and Secretary of State Jack Straw. She is one of five appointees who will serve for a period of four years. Seneviratne joined NLS in 1998 as a research ­professor and her work has focused on ­ombudsmen and complaints procedures.

Scotland

• Anderson Strathern has appointed Kevin Rennie as a non-executive director. Rennie is a former managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Edinburgh and was the global strategy and operations leader of PwC’s global advisory practice.

Wales

• MLM Cartwright has taken on a new ­solicitor and awarded training contracts to three ­paralegals. Trainees Sioned Eurig, Paul Richards and James Young join recently qualified solicitor Jamie Smith as new recruits to the firm. Smith completed his two-year training contract at MLM Cartwright, having joined the practice as a ­paralegal in 2007.

ASIA

• Salans has appointed associates Iris ­Duchetsmann and Lijuan Zheng to its Shanghai office. Duchetsmann takes on the role of head of the firm’s China labour law group. Both join from the Shanghai office of Beiten Burkhardt.
• Lovells has announced the appointment of Stanley Boots as a consultant in its Hong Kong office. He joins from DLA Piper in Tokyo, where he was an associate.

US

• The Orange County office of global law firm K&L Gates has taken on Michael Hedge as a ­partner in its corporate practice. Hedge joins the firm from Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, where he was a partner.
• Nixon Peabody has hired Maria Swiatek as counsel in its IP department. Swiatek joins the ­Silicon Valley office from Morgan Lewis & ­Bockius, where she was a partner.
• Bingham McCutchen has added Jacob ­Worenklein as a corporate partner in its New York office. Worenklein was the founder and former chairman and chief executive of US Power ­Generating Company.
• Chadbourne & Parke has added IP lawyer John Hintz as a partner in its New York office. He joins the firm from WilmerHale, where he was a partner in the firm’s litigation department and a member of the IP litigation practice group.

OFFSHORE

• Isle of Man firm Dougherty Quinn has ­promoted Giles Hill to the position of partner. He joins the firm from Cains, where he was litigation departmental director. Meanwhile, Paul Blake has joined Dougherty Quinn as head of finance and strategy. He joins from Lloyds TSB, where he was a senior manager in the offshore corporate ­banking department.
• Mourant du Feu & Jeune has promoted ­Jersey advocates Mathew Cook and Craig
• Swart to the position of senior associate.
• Cook is a Jersey advocate in the firm’s litigation practice. Swart qualified as a South African attorney and notary in 1996, then qualified as
• an English solicitor in 2005. He joined Mourant in March 2007 and ­qualified as a Jersey advocate last year.

IN-HOUSE

• Kudos Film & Television has appointed ­Martin Haines as head of legal and business affairs. Haines will assume responsibility
• for all legal and business affairs at the
• company. He replaces Sarah Wilde, who is ­leaving Kudos to devote more time to her
• family. Haines joins Kudos from his previous role as commercial director and head of legal affairs for independent producer and music publisher The Little ­Entertainment Group.
• Juliet Bawtree has joined the IPA legal team as senior legal manager from City law firm Withers, where she advised on employment rights. Her role at the IPA will be to advise ­members on employment and HR-related issues.
• TNT UK legal director John Bleasdale will
• take over as chair of the Commerce &
• Industry Group this week. He succeeds LSL ­Property ­Services legal head Sapna Bedi ­FitzGerald, who has chaired the group since ­September 2008.