People on the move SAS Daniels; UCLan; Clearwater International; HRC Law

Back l-r: Ray Woodward, Steven Percy, Kim Rowden, Jo Unwin; front l-r: Paul Tyrer, Hannah Leese, James Goddard, Jeremy Orrell, Katie Hodson, Stewart Smith

Cheshire law firm SAS Daniels has promoted nine lawyers to support the company’s organic growth strategy, following another impressive year of financial success that saw revenues grow by 10% to £9.1m.

SAS Daniels has made six promotions to senior associates and three to associate, across four of the firm’s service areas – property, employment, corporate and dispute resolution.

The firm’s commercial property team achieved growth of 18% in the past financial year alone.

Jeremy Orrell, who was recently announced as the firm’s managing partner following a restructure at SAS Daniels, said: “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to make these promotions and watch the individuals progress with their legal careers.

“We work hard to ensure that we create an environment where our employees have the opportunity to deliver a unique and high standard of service to our clients and these promotions are testimony to that approach. The new promotions come as part of our continued organic growth strategy, which has seen us extend our specialisms, teams and client portfolios.”

The new appointments are: Senior associates –  Ray Woodward, dispute resolution;  Hannah Leese, food law and dispute resolution; Stewart Smith, commercial property;   James Goddard, commercial property; Paul Tyrer, corporate;   Kim Rowden, residential property; associates -Steven Percy, commercial property;  Jo Unwin, residential property; and Katie Hodson, employment.

Over recent years SAS Daniels has extended its legal services into several niche areas and now has specialist lawyers servicing the construction, music, agricultural, insolvency and food sectors. It has invested in new offices in both Macclesfield and Congleton and is planning to move to larger offices in Chester to accommodate the growth the firm is enjoying.

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The University of Central Lancashire in Preston has announced the appointment of Professor StJohn Crean to the role of pro vice-chancellor (clinical) with immediate effect.

Crean will be responsible for building productive networks and relationships with key stakeholders in order to ensure that the University is able to implement new and innovative opportunities in clinical health business, education and research.

He will support the vice-chancellor and senior executive team by leading the university’s continued growth and development of its provision in these areas with support from the university’s executive deans.

Deputy vice-chancellor Dr Lynne Livesey said: “StJohn will bring extensive experience, expertise and leadership qualities to this important role having overseen the development of our clinical programmes in both medicine and dentistry where our students benefit from purpose built facilities that are amongst the most modern and high-tech in Europe.”

Crean added: “I delighted to accept this exciting new position. By building on the phenomenal success and great reputation of our medical, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy programmes, the University is set to play a major role in reducing health inequalities and enabling an integrated approach to health and care provision across the North West.”

Prior to accepting his new role, Crean served within the university as executive dean of the faculty of clinical and biomedical sciences and previously held the roles of director of dental research and knowledge transfer, and dean of the school of postgraduate medical and dental education.

Beyond the University, Creann is an honorary consultant at Blackpool Victoria Hospitals Trust and the University of Morecambe Bay Hospitals Foundation Trust.

He is currently the Robert Bradlaw advisor in the faculty of dental surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and editor-in-chief of the Faculty Dental Journal (FDJ). In addition he holds the posts of president of the North West branch of the British Dental Association and chairman of the Fylde Section.

His research interests include the safe management of medicalised patients in dentistry and the role of oral bacteria in systemic disease, with a focus on neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

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Clearwater International has appointed Mark Ward a an associate in its Manchester office as part of a raft of appointments in its debt advisory team.

Ward completed his degree at Bath University he joined PwC in 2012, where he worked with a variety of listed, PE-backed and private businesses.

Mark Taylor, Partner and Head of Clearwater International Debt Advisory, said: “Clearwater International identified debt advisory as a value-add service for our clients early on, and has continued to invest in and grow its team. This recruitment across the international offices shows the growing importance of debt advisory within the market, as the funding universe continues to become more diversified.”

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Full service commercial law firm HRC Law, based in Manchester, has continued the expansion of its team with the two new appointments to support ongoing growth.

Graham Hansen has joined the firm’s commercial team as an associate, specialising in commercial and consumer contracts, as well as related data protection and intellectual property issues.

He trained and worked at TLT before moving to an in-house counsel role at Acenden and then esure, where he was responsible for advising on varied business needs and commercial contracts.
Hansen’s appointment comes on the back of the firm’s impressive growth to date and is a response to their client’s increasing requirements for contractual and advisory specialist services which are increasing daily following the Brexit referendum decision and the imminent introduction of the new data protection regime, GDPR.  This new data protection law will have a nationwide impact on all business and will apply from 25 May 2018.

Hansen said said: “The current landscape provides so much opportunity for our clients who are ambitious and entrepreneurially-minded businesses. I was impressed with how HRC Law puts the client at the centre of everything it does and works in a seamless way. I’m looking forward to working with the excellent team to support clients in their growth.”

Nasrin Ali also joins the firm in their growing commercial property department as an associate. She has more than 19 years’ experience and joins from Slater & Gordon where she held the position of senior associate. Prior to this she trained at Cameron McKenna, held positions at Allen & Overy and Addleshaw Goddard and was a sole practitioner for 11 years.

Her property experience extends beyond property law as Nasrin also is a qualified civil engineer and she worked at Balfour Beatty early in her career, before training as a solicitor.

Ali is also the deputy chair of Manchester Planning and Highways Committee and is a judge of the First Tier Residential Property Tribunal as well as a school governor. She will continue with these commitments whilst working in the team, bringing complementary experience to the firm from each role.

Ali said: “As soon as I met the team at HRC Law, I was absolutely clear this was the right move for me. The firm works in partnership with its ambitious client list and collaborates brilliantly across teams to help clients’ businesses succeed.”

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