– Veale Wasbrough has bolstered its Bristol office, taking on secondee Zhang Hui from Guangzhou firm Whobound Law Firm for three months as part of the Lord Chancellor’s Training Scheme for Young Chinese Lawyers. Hammonds has also taken on a secondee as part of the scheme. Company law litigator Joe Chen joins the London office for three months from Chinese law firm Dingsheng.
– Katten Muchin Rosenman Cornish has promoted partner Sam Tyfield to head of corporate in London and Eleanor Hunwicks to the partnership in the real estate finance group. At the same time, Andrew Thomas has joined the firm as a senior associate from Henderson, senior associates Jane Le Roi and Zofia Kordek have been hired from Davies Arnold Cooper and junior associate Kirsten Bradby has joined from Sidley Austin.
– Lancashire firm Backhouse Jones has hired Josie Williams as an assistant in its insurance litigation department. Williams joins from Berrymans Lace Mawer in Manchester.
– Cobbetts has taken on planning specialist Marian Griffiths as a partner in its Leeds real estate practice. She joins from Eversheds.
– Bryan Cave has appointed associate Annett Sondermann as an associate in the London corporate finance and securities department. Sondermann moves across from Field Fisher Waterhouse, where she had been for eight years.
– Gide Loyrette Nouel has hired IP specialist Daniel Plane as a senior associate in its Hong Kong office. Plane was previously senior anti-counterfeiting manager at LVMH Fashion Group Pacific. Meanwhile, IP partner Huang Zhen has moved to Shanghai from the firm’s Paris office. Senior associates François d’Hautefeuille and Jesse Lieberman will also move to the Ho Chi Minh City office from Beijing and Vietnamese law firm Vilaf Hong Duc Law respectively.
– Lancashire’s Farleys Solicitors has hired Naomi Siddle from Taylors Solicitors as an assistant in its commercial team.
– DLA Piper has appointed Will Harrison as partner in its litigation group in the Hong Kong office. Harrison, who specialises in contentious insurance matters, joins from Clifford Chance where he was a senior associate.
– Matthew Smith has been promoted to the partnership at East Midlands firm Cartwright King. Smith has been with the firm since June 2006 following the merger with Nelsons‘ criminal and business defence departments, where he had worked since 2000.
– Gregory Rowcliffe Milners has appointed Chris Bannister as a partner in its company and commercial team, focusing on the travel and leisure practice. He joins from Sedgwick Kelly in Watford.
– Keeble Hawson managing partner Tony Gregory has celebrated his 40-year anniversary with the firm. Gregory joined the then-named Keeble Hawson Steele Carr & Co as a police court advocate in 1967.
– Veale Wasbrough has promoted construction associate Jason Prosser to the partnership. Prosser has been with the firm since June 2001.
– Cripps Harries Hall has appointed Christine Freshwater as head of personal tax trusts and probate. She joins from Fresh Consultancy.
– Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle has hired two partners, Jérôme Pentecoste and Eden Quainton, and one counsel, Pascale Rouast-Bertier, in its Paris office. They join from Pentecoste Law Firm, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Lafarge respectively.
– Jersey firm Carey Olsen has hired Keith Hood in the new role of compliance director as the firm gears up for forthcoming changes in Jersey’s regulatory framework. Hood joins from Abbey National International in Jersey, where he was risk and compliance manager.
– Spanish firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo has brought in the former chief financial officer of energy giant Endesa as a part-time consultant. José Luis Palomo joins the firm’s advisory board, working three days a week. He quit Endesa in the summer after a 16-year stint at the company.
– The joint head of 5 Raymond Buildings, Desmond Browne QC, has been appointed as the Bar Council’s chair-elect for 2009. Browne will take on the role of chair after spending 2008 as the council’s vice-chair. Timothy Dutton QC of Fountain Court will take over as chair of the Bar Council for 2008 when Geoffrey Vos QC stands down.
– Walker Morris has appointed four second-year trainees as newly qualified assistants. They are: Claire Askew, Nigel Lunn, Catherine Raftery and Harriet Sibson.
– New Zealand firm Chapman Tripp has rehired Ruth Kemball as a senior associate. She previously worked at the firm in 2001, before returning to the UK to join Barclays Bank as legal counsel. Chris Liddall also joins as a senior associate from TLT Solicitors, while Jane Iball joins the firm’s HR team as learning the development manager from HSBC.
– Nottingham firm Andersons Solicitors has hired Alison Playle as a assistant from Rothera Dowson.
