People: Shoosmiths makes Leeds partner hire; Irwin Mitchell promotes; and more
Peter Morris is to head the Leeds family team at law firm Shoosmiths.
Morris joins Shoosmiths as a partner from Simpson Millar where he was national head of family law.
Previous to this he held partner roles at Irwin Mitchell and Langleys. As a family lawyer and trained mediator, Morris provides legal advice and practical solutions in respect of all areas of relationship breakdown and pre-marriage financial planning.
He specialises in both matrimonial finance and children cases. Areas of specialism include dealing with complex business assets, pensions and international elements, such as overseas assets, choices of jurisdiction and parents looking to relocate with their children.
Neil Hobden, national head of family law at Shoosmiths, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Peter into the family team at Shoosmiths. His appointment as head of the Leeds family team is further evidence of our commitment as a national practice to provide our clients with the best possible legal service. Having operated as a partner in the region for the majority of his career Peter has extensive knowledge of the regional legal market and is a perfect fit to head the launch of our team in the region.”
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Irwin Mitchell has announced four new partners across its Yorkshire offices as part of this year’s promotion round.
Based in Sheffield, James Berry specialises in commercial dispute resolution and regularly advises clients in the manufacturing, construction and technology sectors and across a wide variety of commercial disputes including complex IT issues, shareholder disputes, claims arising from sale and purchase agreements, warranty claims, professional negligence claims and commercial contract disputes. He also has extensive experience in handling interim injunction applications and is an active proponent of alternative dispute resolution.
Also Sheffield based, Kevin Fox is a property and development lawyer with broad experience of all types of commercial property transactions having driven a number of major investment portfolio acquisitions and disposals. He provides advice to clients across both the public and third sector, as well as to private companies. He also has particular experience in high value, large scale student portfolio acquisitions, developments and disposals, providing advice and guidance on all legal aspects of acquisition and site assembly, investment and/or development finance and legal structures.
Specialising in all areas of corporate recovery and insolvency and also working in the Sheffield office, Tom Paton advises insolvency practitioners, banks, companies, individuals and creditors on a variety of insolvency-related matters at a local, national and cross border level. He has particular experience in contentious insolvency, acting for insolvency practitioners in claims against third parties brought under the Insolvency Act 1986.
In Leeds, personal injury lawyer Ian Toft has also been promoted. Toft has been with Irwin Mitchell since April 2008 and became head of work place illness in 2015. His background is firmly in industrial disease with 15 years’ experience in acting for clients who have been exposed to asbestos which can cause mesothelioma, asbestos lung cancer and pleural thickening. As well as acting for asbestos sufferers from the heavy industries like shipbuilding, construction and engineering, Toft has acted for teachers, publicans, police officers and shop workers exposed to asbestos at work.
Andrew Tucker, group chief executive at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Promotion to partner level is a huge achievement which demonstrates the incredible hard work and dedication that each of these people has shown across their time at Irwin Mitchell. Each and every one of our new partners thoroughly deserves their promotion and I am proud to congratulate all of them on their success.”
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Nicola Carey
Communications agency CreativeRace has hired Nicola Carey as strategy director, expanding the agency’s strategic offering.
Carey will develop strategies for clients including ASDA, Greggs, DFS and Pets at Home.
She began her career in London working in brand consulting, and leading insight and strategy projects for clients such as Red Bull, Diageo and EE.
Carey then relocated from London to take up the role of head of strategy and planning for the Jaywing Brand comms team in Sheffield, before moving into a Jaywing group role in Leeds.
This saw her work as client strategy director across both Jaywing and Epiphany, helping to consolidate the group’s brand and performance marketing teams. At Jaywing, Carey was responsible for defining the brand and creative strategy for the Hull 2017 UK City of Culture campaign, as well as First Direct and E.ON.
