People: DWF; Liverpool Law Society; Stephensons

LEGAL business DWF has appointed partner and commercial services’ head of client development Kirsty Rogers as executive partner for the firm’s 770-strong Manchester office.

In her role, Rogers will be responsible for driving forward DWF’s strategic business objectives through her continued engagement in employee and client service delivery.
 
She will also lead the office’s corporate social responsibility agenda, where she already heads up the gender strand of the Diversity Steering Group.
 
Rogers will work closely with the outgoing executive partner and Head of the firm’s family team, David Pickering, who will continue to lead many external facing activities.
 
Rogers is a leading employment partner and manages some of the firm’s key client relationships.  

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JOANNE Francis, a partner at BLM, the UK and Ireland’s leading risk and insurance law firm, has been appointed as a director of the Liverpool Law Society.
 
Francis joins as a member of the general committee, made up of up to 27 members who work to support the legal profession in the North West, communicating concerns of the membership in a public forum.

As a director of one of the largest local law societies in England and Wales, she will be responsible for supporting and helping to promote the interests of a key section of the profession; and to also participate in legal debate on a number of important issues and developments.

It will facilitate looking at industry issues including Government policy and affairs and ensuring information is submitted for consideration to decision makers.
 
BLM senior partner Mike Brown said: “It is a huge honour for BLM to be represented at General Committee level. Joanne’s appointment will provide a great opportunity for BLM to be at the forefront of debate in the legal sector in the North West, as well as a chance to engage and work with other leading practitioners in the region.

“As head of our Liverpool office, Joanne has vast experience as a practitioner in the Merseyside area and I have no doubt that her expertise will prove invaluable to the Society going forward.”

Francis joined BLM in 1993 and heads up the Liverpool office, working on construction, retail, transport and public sector litigation. She specialises in employers and public liability; and has experience of working with companies on health and safety practices and claims management.
 
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STEPHENSONS, the national full service law firm, has announced its most recent round of partner appointments.
 
The firm is welcoming family law specialist Paul Webb, medical negligence expert Claire Mooney and the head of legal expense insurance and new business Mark Fenning to the partnership this month. Each partner has developed a reputations as a leading professional in their respective area of work.
 
Mooney joined the firm in 2009, was appointed an associate in 2012 and is recognised by the Law Society’s Clinical Negligence Accreditation Scheme. She has experience in a broad spectrum of medical negligence cases and is especially well regarded for her work on obstetric and birth injury claims. She will work from Stephensons’ Wigan Investment Centre.
 
Fenning, who will also work at Wigan, joined the firm in 2005 as a graduate paralegal in the commercial practice working on the Legal Advice Line for the Chamber of Commerce.  He qualified as a personal injury solicitor in 2009 and in 2012 relinquished fee earning duties to concentrate on a new business management role.

He now heads up the firm’s legal expense insurance and new business services.

Webb joined the firm in 2002 as a graduate clerk and became a trainee in September 2003 doing seats in family, personal injury and conveyancing practices. He has been with the firm for more than a decade and worked from Manchester, Bolton and Altrincham offices.

For the past two years he has been managing the firm’s family team at the Altrincham office, but he will now work from Altrincham.

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