People on the move: Kuits; Your Legal Friend; Slater Heelis; Miller Homes
Manchester commercial law firm Kuits has announced the promotion of five of its most promising lawyers.
Meave O’Neill of the firm’s banking team has been promoted to senior associate, while Rebecca Ingram of licensing, Claire Heron of residential conveyancing, and Yasmin Kalantari and Humna Nadim of intellectual property – who were both shortlisted for Lawyer of the Year at the Made in Manchester Awards 2016 – have all been promoted to associate.
Steve Eccleston, managing partner for Kuits, said: “It is an increasingly tough market out there for law firms, but we are successfully differentiating ourselves from the pack by providing trusted commercial advice on legal issues to SMEs and entrepreneurs – these are the businesses that really benefit from our commercial advice, as well as our technical legal expertise, and we’ve been very focused in ‘sticking to our knitting’ in this sense.
“That we are able to offer this level of service and advice is entirely dependent on recruiting and retaining the best people, so we take the development of our talent very seriously, with plenty of training opportunities, and focused development and recognition programmes.
“We are delighted to recognise the achievements of these five individuals over the last 12 months, and we are equally delighted that they continue to feel that Kuits is a firm in which they can build challenging yet rewarding careers.”
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Birkenhead-based law firm Your Legal Friend has further strengthened its senior management team with the appointment of a new director of 0perations.
Tony Pope joins the company having gained extensive commercial experience across various sectors, most recently spending eight years as chief financial officer at Antony Hodari Legal Services Group.
In his previous role, Pope led the £3m acquisition of the Paul Rooney Partnership. He also had significant operational and financial involvement in one of the largest ongoing UK civil litigation cases (the ‘Kenyan Emergency Group Litigation’), which involves around 40,000 claims against the British Government for alleged human rights abuses in the 1950s and 1960s.
Pope will sit on both the strategic team and the senior leadership team at Your Legal Friend, and have responsibility for Operations, HR, Accounts, IT and Compliance, overseeing 97 members of staff.
Your Legal Friend chief executive Colin Gibson said: “Tony is a key hire for us as he has senior operational, commercial and financial experience gained across a number of sectors, including personal injury.
“He’s consistently demonstrated his ability to develop optimal processes and the right working environment to support growth and client service levels.”
Pope added: “Your Legal Friend has a fantastic reputation and has made great strides in diversifying into specialist areas of litigation such as clinical negligence and group claims. My role will focus on ensuring every aspect of this well respected law firm works effectively for the benefit of clients and employees.”
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Experienced corporate lawyer Simon Wallwork has been appointed head of the Slater Heelis corporate team.
Wallwork has nearly 30 years’ experience in corporate law and has been repeatedly ranked by Experian as one of the most active dealmakers in the North West.
The corporate team is going from strength to strength after seeing significant growth since 2015 and a strong first half of 2017. The team has seen fee income more than double, completing 34 transactions in 2016, with the rate of transaction completions rising again in 2017, with 17 deals completed since January.
Since Wallwork joined in 2014, the team has grown from two partners and one assistant operating from the firm’s Sale office, to three partners and four assistants operating from city centre Manchester and from Sale.
The team now consistently ranks in the Top 10 Dealmakers by Experian.
Wallwork said: “I believe there is a gap in the market for an energetic, high quality corporate law team that puts clients’ interests at the forefront of the work they do.”
“We pride ourselves on our personal service. When clients engage a senior member of our team, the relationship remains with them throughout, ensuring we always deliver the renowned levels of service that have become synonymous with Slater Heelis.”
“Our successes over the past year give us a strong platform to build on and my vision is to continue to develop our offering to cement our place in the market as a proactive team for entrepreneurial clients.”
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Miller Homes, one of the UK’s largest national house builders, has appointed Ian Smith as its new managing director for the North West region.
Miller says the appointment underlines its commitment to driving growth in the region and its desire to fulfil the demand for its award-winning homes.
In his new role, Smith will have overall responsibility for the region’s performance and delivery of the company’s business plan in line with the wider Miller Homes corporate strategy.
Based from the company’s offices in Newton-le-Willows on Merseyside and covering a territory encompassing the North West and North Wales, Smith will oversee all business operations from land acquisitions to the successful construction and sale of new homes, whilst ensuring that high levels of customer service are maintained throughout.
Steve Birch, managing director of Miller Homes’ North Region, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Ian to the team and look forward to continuing our success in the North West.
“Ian is a proven operator with significant experience of leading teams in the new homes marketplace. We are excited by the opportunity that this appointment brings and look forward to Ian helping us to further develop our presence in the North West.”
