People on the Move: McAlister Family Law; Clancy Consulting; Vaioni; Fieldfisher; MSB

In a key senior hire for McAlister Family Law, Nicola Wilburn-Shaw has joined as partner. She will be based in the firm’s Alderley Edge offices.

She brings to the role a wealth of experience, having previously held the position of associate partner with Laytons, as well as working with BLM Solicitors and Hill Dickinson.

Nicola graduated from the University of Sheffield and originally qualified into fraud litigation.

Her experience in this field means she has a particular aptitude for high value and multi-asset financial disputes, where there may be a concern surrounding undisclosed income or assets.

Known for her discretion, she is much sought after by high profile individuals, and recently acted in one of the top three, highest value divorces in the UK, with a net asset base in excess of £150m.

She is highly-experienced in unmarried and/or cohabitee disputes concerning property and provision for children, and is a contributor to a number of national legal publications, including Lexis Nexis. She is also an Ambassador for Women in the Law UK.

McAlister Family Law, which has offices in Manchester city centre, throughout the North West, and London, and was recently crowned Family Team of the Year by the Manchester Legal Awards, is part of the Manchester-based Beyond Professional Services Group.

Nicola said: “This is a very exciting move for me as the firm continues its rapid growth and increasing dominance of the family law market in the region.”

Amanda McAlister, managing partner, added: “We are delighted to have Nicola’s expertise at McAlister Family Law and are pleased to welcome her to the team. She is highly regarded throughout the North West for her family law expertise, and her particular skill set complements our already extensive family law offering.

“This is a significant hire for the business, and I am confident she will play a major role in the continued development of our Alderley Edge office.”

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Multi-disciplinary consulting engineering firm, Clancy Consulting, has announced the appointment of Martyn Headley in the role of chief executive officer.

The move follows Alan Bramwell’s decision to retire after 37 years of service, including 15 years as chief executive. Under his leadership Clancy Consulting increased turnover figures from £5m to £14m and opened five additional offices across the UK.

Martyn has been with the company since 1991, most recently in the role of a main board director in the Manchester office, servicing clients in the civil and structural engineering disciplines across the entire North West.

He has an established record of accomplishment for delivering projects of a multi-disciplinary nature, acting as the lead consultant.

Martyn Headley

In his new role Martyn will be responsible for actively overseeing the company’s 10 offices, providing leadership across all departments, including business development and marketing, to grow Clancy Consulting’s services nationally across the built environment.

He said: “I’m very proud to take over the role of chief executive officer from Alan, whose excellent stewardship over the years has been instrumental in positioning Clancy Consulting as a leading engineering firm nationally.

“It’s certainly big shoes to fill and Alan’s presence will be sorely missed, although I’m excited to take on the new challenge.

“Recent changes to the business reflect a natural progression that is laying the foundations for further growth in the coming years.

“We have a fantastic team at every level and I am confident that I can lead the company to further success. Having worked at Clancy Consulting for almost 28 years, I have a comprehensive understanding of its entire offering and am thrilled to be heading up this new chapter.”

Clancy Consulting has made a number of strategic changes in recent months to facilitate its long-term growth plans. Chris Acton, who led the company’s expansion into the Middle-East in 2011, is taking on Martyn’s former responsibility of leading the civil and structural engineering team in Manchester.

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Following its ambitious growth plans announced last year, Manchester-based network operator Vaioni is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Curtis-Wood to the role of group sales & marketing director.

This is a newly-created, pivotal role for Vaioni, demonstrating its commitment to driving its ambitious growth plans in becoming a market leading digital transformation provider.

This new role bolsters the current leadership team and accelerates the business’s strategy, including the rollout of its software defined network (VEN), enhancing the product range, entrance into new markets and the people strategy.

Mark Curtis-Wood

Mark will predominately be responsible for developing the sales, product and marketing strategies, identifying how the business enhances customers’ path through the digital transformation journey and strengthen the firm’s position as a trusted digital partner, while leading and developing the sales and marketing team to be the best in the industry.

Prior to joining Vaioni Mark was head of Nimans Networks Services Division within the Nycomm Group where he was fundamental in devising new strategies to maximise growth, building revenues and increasing profitability.

He brings with him more than 30 years of sales management experience and 18 years proven track record of increasing revenue and margin in the voice, broadband, connectivity, mobile, IoT and hosted UC solutions markets.

Mark said: “With the business’s ambitious growth plans and strategies, these are very exciting times for Vaioni.

“Vaioni is recognised as an award-winning and fast-growth company, and I am thrilled to be joining a team focused on driving high performance and delivering excellence to its customers, and the business.”

Sachin Vaish, managing director at Vaioni, said: “Mark brings with him a wealth of experience within the telecoms industry and his ethical values and vision align very well with our business.”

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Fieldfisher has hired two medical negligence partners, Claire Horton and Julia Hamilton.

Both come from Slater and Gordon and join medical negligence partners Jenny Urwin and Lindsay Holt in Fieldfisher’s Manchester office.

Claire Horton has nearly 30 years’ experience in representing often catastrophically injured clients at both the liability and quantum stages.

She specialises in birth injury cases, including cerebral and non-cerebral palsy (atypical) injury.

She has also achieved substantial levels of compensation in a wide variety of high value cases including in delayed diagnosis, particularly of cancer.

Julia Hamilton has also handled a broad range of clinical negligence cases on behalf of claimants.

From left: Lindsay Holt, Claire Horton, Jenny Urwin, Julia Hamilton

She has expertise in brain injury cases, both for adults and children, particularly involving cerebral palsy. She also advises on cases involving delayed diagnosis of cancer and meningitis, resulting in terminal disease or injury.

Jenny Urwin, Fieldfisher’s head of clinical negligence in Manchester, said: “We are very excited to welcome two former colleagues to join our successful and growing team.

“Julia and Claire have a wealth of expert knowledge and experience in this field and will further strengthen our offering to clients.”

Fieldfisher’s clinical negligence team is ranked as a band 1 UK firm in both Chambers and The Legal 500 directories of leading lawyers and the Manchester team has grown to four partners in the space of a year.

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Family law specialist John Owens has joined the family law department at Liverpool-based MSB and Karla Cope is also joining to head up the firm’s private client team.

Already well established in the Liverpool legal sector, John joins MSB from PMC Family Law and will be a senior associate solicitor based at the fast-growing firm’s No 4 St Paul’s Square headquarters.

He graduated with a law degree from the University of Ulster in Belfast and completed the Legal Practice Course (LPC) with the College of Law in Chester, before moving to Liverpool.

His background was initially in litigation but, after completing his training as a solicitor with PMC, he then took the decision to specialise in family law. He has since developed specific expertise in dealing with mid- to high-net worth financial cases, those involving an international element and Children Act cases, with a particular focus on fathers’ access rights.

John said: “I am able to draw on my varied experience and ability to work across different areas of law in order to achieve the best possible outcome for my clients.

Karla Cope and John Owens, with Emma Carey standing

“I like to put my clients at ease and to develop a rapport, whether they are individuals of high-net worth, celebrities or vulnerable clients of modest means.”

Karla is joining MSB from from Hillyer McKeown where she was manager of the lifetime planning department. She said: “I’m delighted to join such a well-established and still-growing firm and very much looking forward to the challenges the role will present.

“MSB has a well-developed portfolio of private client work, but there is room to grow this further. I hope to be able to apply my experience to embedding a strategy that will ensure steady growth of the department in the coming months. It’s an exciting time.”

MSB has already established a strong reputation in family law in the North West and has consolidated its position further over the past 12 months with a series of hires, as well as the acquisition of specialist family law firm, Cheesmans. The department is now 45-strong.

Emma Carey, managing partner of MSB, said: “Hiring John and Karla is in line with our policy of identifying the best legal talent available and bringing them into our organisation. Their experiences and skills will make their respective departments even stronger and I am delighted to welcome them to the fold.”