People on the Move: Crowe; Equilibrium Asset Management; Brabners; Yorkshire Bank; Forbes Solicitors

From left: Paul Burchett, Chris Hine, Jon Beardsell and Michael Jayson

National audit, tax, advisory and risk firm Crowe has recruited three new senior forensic accountants based in the firm’s Manchester office.

Chris Hine joins the firm as partner to lead on the firm’s expert witness work, along with senior managers Paul Burchett and Jon Beardsell.

All three have worked as a team for more than 12 years within the professional services industry.

Chris has specialised in forensic accounting for the past 24 years, and during that time has worked on many high profile cases in sporting, commercial, business and transactional areas, providing strategic advice and leading on investigatory work.

He said: “Paul, Jon and I lead Crowe’s expert witness services and are part of the national forensic team, led by Jim Gee. Our work complements the existing wide range of forensic services, enabling the quantification of damages in disputes.”

Michael Jayson, Crowe’s managing partner in Manchester, said: “Chris is a very welcome addition to our national forensic team which has gone from strength to strength since its launch last year.

“Together with Paul and Jon, they provide our clients in the North West and nationally with specialist advice in an area which is affecting a greater number of businesses. Their recruitment further enhances the strong valuation credentials of the firm.”

Chris Hine joins partners Michael Jayson, Rebecca Durrant and Vicky Szulist in Crowe’s Manchester office, which has continued to grow since its move to The Lexicon in Mount Street.

Michael Jayson said: “More and more clients in the North West want advisors who are local, but part of a national and global network, and are choosing to work with Crowe as their business partners.”

Jim Gee, partner and head of Crowe’s national forensic team, said: “We are delighted to welcome Chris and his team to Crowe. Their appointments and considerable experience provide us with a complete range of forensic services across expert witness, investigations, valuation, fraud, cybercrime and business intelligence.

“With the addition of their expertise, we are well placed to help clients tackle threats posed by cybercrime which are causing increasing concern for businesses.

“We look forward to continuing to grow our capability and launching new service lines in the near future.”

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Equilibrium Asset Management has once again increased its workforce and expertise with the hire of five recruits.

The Wilmslow-based wealth management company has taken on Mike Phillips as compliance and risk manager, Ben Alves as client manager, Tom Worthington as trainee client manager, Lucie Bloomfield as assistant PA and Diana Majko as chartered client manager.

Headcount at Equilibrium now stands at 86 and comes just after the company announced that it had delivered a record-breaking £8.9m turnover in the financial year to September 2018.

Explaining Equilibrium’s offering, Colin Lawson, who founded Equilibrium 23 years ago, said: “We ultimately have three services that we provide for our clients, that we try to roll up in to one seamless offering.

“It starts off with financial planning.

“Once we know exactly what the client is looking for we go on to create the investment plan, which all have specific targets relevant to their objectives.

From left: Lucie Bloomfield, Diana Majko, Mike Phillips, Ben Alves, Tom Worthington

“We then think about the third level of service very carefully, which is the tax mitigation.”

Mike Phillips, who has worked in financial services for almost 20 years, joined from Paradigm where he worked on their technical consultancy team for seven years.

Lucie Bloomfield was hired by Equilibrium following a spell working as a deputy practice manager at a busy GP surgery, while Tom Worthington joined the team after gaining experience in a customer-facing environment dealing with defined contribution pensions schemes.

Ben Alves had spent two years as a financial adviser at Evestor before joining Equilibrium, while Diana Majko is joining from Astute Wealth Management and has five years’ experience in the industry.

Colin Lawson said the recruits have joined the company following eight years of consecutive turnover growth.

He said: “Mike, Ben, Tom, Lucie and Diana will boost our offering considerably and have already proven how well they fit into our company and its forward-thinking culture.”

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North West independent legal practice Brabners has strengthened its offering in the region following a series of appointments in its Preston office.

The firm, which also has offices in Liverpool and Manchester, has appointed Sarah Murphy as a partner within its private client team.

Sarah is a Legal 500-recommended lawyer and a member of the Law Society’s Private Client Section Committee, which acts as a national advisory board for legal issues including wills, powers of attorney and estate administration.

She is also one of a small number of fully accredited members of Solicitors for the Elderly in the North West. This qualification recognises her experience and training in helping people to deal with complex, life-changing issues.

Alongside Sarah, associate Hannah Bates and solicitor Mairead Platt also join the firm.

From left: Hannah Bates, Sarah Murphy, Ross Shine, Christine Hart, Mairead Platt

Hannah is a private client lawyer and previously worked for Oglethorpe Sturton & Gillibrand. Mairead joins Brabners’ corporate team from KBL Solicitors and will work alongside head of corporate, Nikki Whittle.

The appointments are the latest development in Brabners’ ongoing three-year growth plan.

The firm announced an eight per cent increase in year-on-year turnover to £31.4m for the financial year 2017/18. Headcount has also increased by 7%, to 386 in the past 12 months, which includes 65 partners.

Other recent senior appointments for Brabners in the North West include Christine Hart as head of employment (Preston), Paul Firth as head of real estate and Robert Nieri as partner within the firm’s charity practice.

Sarah Murphy said: “It’s an exciting time to be joining Brabners with the firm clearly going from strength to strength.

“As one of the most vulnerable sections of society, elderly people rely on receiving legal advice that is straightforward and tailored to their needs.

“The team here is committed to that approach and I’m looking forward to working with them to grow our private client portfolio.”

Nik White, managing partner at Brabners, added: “Hiring the best talent is an essential part of our growth strategy and will help us to cement the firm’s position as the region’s leading independent legal practice.

“Sarah, Hannah, Mairead and Christine definitely strengthen our leading team based in Preston and will mean we are even better placed to support our Lancashire and Cumbria clients.”

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Yorkshire Bank has strengthened its SME business banking team in Manchester as part of a series of national appointments in preparation for the RBS Business Bank Switch scheme, which is due to being in February 2019.

The initiative will increase competition in the SME market by offering eligible RBS customers with incentivised deals and rewards to switch their bank account to another provider.

As part of its commitment to supporting SMEs, Yorkshire Bank has recruited Matt Young, a relationship manager with 30 years’ experience in business lending.

He has built a reputation for being a trusted adviser and has a wide network of contacts who are able to offer further support to his customers.

Matt Young

Matt began his career with NatWest before moving to a UK property company with his work taking him across Europe, which was an opportunity to gain a different perspective on the banker and customer relationship.

He joined RBS in 2008, working across the North West, before joining Yorkshire Bank earlier this year.

He said: “Yorkshire Bank has an opportunity to do something different in the UK banking market and to deliver a higher quality of service to our SME customers.

“The SME market is changing and it’s great to be a part of a business and a team that is committed to working with its SME customers to ensure their continued growth. Yorkshire Bank considers each deal on its own merits and has the scale to fulfil all our customers’ needs.”

Yorkshire Bank hopes to play an active part of the RBS Business Bank Switch scheme and believes it represents a significant opportunity to increase competition in SME banking.

Ian Hardman, head of business development, commercial banking at Yorkshire Bank, said: “It’s vital that we have the right team in place to ensure businesses who want to switch to our bank, as part of the RBS Business Bank Switch scheme, are properly supported.

“Matt is an excellent addition to Yorkshire Bank – his wealth of experience and knowledge is second to none and is already playing a vital role in our team.”

“We know SMEs want a banking partner they can trust and with Matt and our team in Manchester, we will work hard to ensure we are delivering the best customer experience in the market.”

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North West-based Forbes Solicitors has expanded its employment team with the appointment of three solicitors and two paralegals.

Abigail Mottram, Trishna Modessa, Yara Cherbetji, Charlotte Black and Jason Landa add expertise in a number of areas and have begun working with a wide range of clients in both the public and private sectors.

Abigail, a solicitor based in the central Lancashire office in Walton Summit, trained with Forbes and works predominantly with commercial clients, but also has experience of working with a number of local authorities and housing associations, advising across a full range of contentious and non-contentious employment matters.

Abigail has experience of running employment tribunal proceedings in claims for unfair dismissal, whistleblowing and discrimination and also holds bespoke in-house training sessions with a number of clients across a range of sectors.

Trishna, a solicitor based in the central Lancashire office, has experience acting for both public sector and private sector clients, with experience in both contentious and non-contentious matters.

From left: Abigail Mottram, Charlotte Black, Jason Landa, Trishna Modessa, Yara Cherbetji

She has built up a range of experience advising on both day-to-day HR queries, providing practical and comprehensive legal advice and support with disciplinary, grievance, sickness absence and performance management processes.

She also has experience with assisting the corporate team during mergers and acquisitions with potential TUPE implications, carrying out due diligence and drafting consultancy agreements with individuals.

Yara, a solicitor based at the Preston and Leeds offices, advises education establishments, private and public sector clients on a range of contentious and non-contentious employment matters, including recruitment, employment status and rights, unfair and wrongful dismissal, discrimination, TUPE transfers, restructures and redundancy and whistleblowing.

Charlotte, a paralegal based in the central Lancashire office, recently graduated from the University of Leeds with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree and is starting her postgraduate diploma in Legal Practice.

She assists with carrying out legal research, dealing with clients, drafting and reviewing contracts of employment and policies, compiling bundles and drafting letters/agreements.

Jason, a paralegal based at the Preston office, has previous experience in employment litigation on a wide array of tribunal matters including unfair dismissal, discrimination, wages, harassment, victimisation, whistleblowing and transfer of undertakings (protection of employment) regulations 2006 (TUPE).

He graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with an LLB in law and is currently studying the LPC combined with a MSc part-time.

Jonathan Holden, partner and head of employment at Forbes, said: “Our employment team has experienced rapid growth as a result of our sector-specific expertise and partnership working with our clients.

“These appointments are a direct result of client demand and enable us to continue our work in assisting our clients to achieve their aims and objectives.”

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