People on the Move: Shoosmiths; Stephensons; DB Symmetry

The Manchester office of law firm Shoosmiths is growing its construction team with the appointment of five legal advisors, all previously with Weightmans.

Joining the Shoosmiths team from Weightmans are partner John Cleaveley, senior associate Stephanie MacPherson, associate, Adam Stead and paralegal Katie O’Leary. Solicitor, Gareth Noonan will also join the team in September.

Expert construction partner, John Cleaveley was previously head of construction for Weightmans and has over 25 years’ experience of working in and with the construction industry. His career has encompassed in-house roles at Mowlem and Bovis Lend Lease. He was also general counsel for the Fulcrum Group, a leading utilities business.

He has worked on a broad range of regional projects, including Salford Media City, Manchester Spinningfields and several large PFI schemes.

Stephanie MacPherson, is a construction dispute specialist but also advises clients on the non-contentious contractual aspects of construction projects. She acts for parties at all stages of the contract chain including employers, developers, contractors, subcontractors and consultants.

Associate Adam Stead brings to the team substantial experience of negotiating standard forms of construction contracts and drafting bespoke consultant appointments, warranties and novations. His role also involves ongoing project advisory services to clients before, during and after the construction phase along with the provision of construction support for the sale, purchase and financing of developments.

Specialist construction and engineering solicitor Gareth Noonan, has worked on a variety of contentious and non-contentious and has several years of commercial dispute and insolvency experience.

Cleaveley said: “Shoosmiths has carved out a leading reputation in the North West real estate sector and having a strong construction offering is key to maintaining that, complementing the very successful property and planning practices at the Manchester office. The team are very much looking forward to helping deliver specialist construction advice in line with the firm’s people-centric and client focused approach.”

Vaqas Farooq, head of the Manchester office, added: “This is an exciting opportunity for us to further strengthen Shoosmiths’ full service offering. We are confident the enhanced construction team will help grow our presence in the North West development market even further and make a significant impact on our ambition to be one of the leading UK Real Estate teams.”

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Victoria Gethin has been appointed head of family and divorce law at Stephensons.

She will take over the position from Mike Devlin, who will continue as a partner within the firm’s family team while balancing his latest role as president of the Manchester Law Society.

Gethin, who has been with Stephensons since qualifying as a solicitor in 2002, is a specialist in complex and sensitive children law cases.

Her experience includes acting for local authorities, parents and children as well as providing expert consultation to public bodies in matters relating to domestic violence.

She is based at the firm’s Manchester office, one of five across Greater Manchester.

She said: “It is a real privilege to lead such a dynamic and diverse team which has a much-deserved reputation for the expertise of its solicitors.

“The modern legal sector is very different proposition for family law compared to five years ago. There is much more demand on firms to provide a wide range of specialisms; to meet the clients expectations in the services we provide – whether face-to-face or on-the-move – and to make sure that our services are available to as many as possible through flexible fee options.

“Stephensons continues to flourish in this regard and I am relishing the opportunity to head the department as we continue to provide the best possible legal service for our clients.”

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National logistics developer db symmetry, which has its headquarters in Manchester, has recruited Kevin Theobold as national head of construction and appointed him to its main board.

Having previously held the position of senior director of RPS Group (formerly DBK), Theobold has 35 years’ experience in property, providing project management and cost consultancy services to private commercial property developers within the industrial, logistics, master-planning and infrastructure, retail, office, residential and student accommodation sectors.

A chartered surveyor, he also has significant plc experience reporting directly to the executive board as director of project management for Redrow from 2002 until 2009.

During this time, Theobold had responsibility for the delivery of major residential-led city centre developments across the UK.

Working as an external consultant, he has been providing services to db symmetry for the last 18 months in addition to developers such as Peel, St Modwen, Stoford and Harworth Estates.

Andrew Dickman at db symmetry, commented: “Over the last year and a half Kevin has continued to play an increasingly vital role in our business and is currently establishing procedures and legal precedents for our organisation. In light of our considerable developments on site, the creation of a new in-house position for head of construction was the next logical step. Kevin is a highly experienced and capable individual with a huge amount of gravitas and is the without doubt the right fit for our business.”

Theobold added: “Having provided services to db symmetry for the last 18 months, I have witnessed first-hand the ambition of the business and fully understand the support and structures it needs in place to achieve its objectives. Once in post in July 2018 I will be managing the consultant teams supplying the design, procurement and construction process for db symmetry reporting directly to board.”