People: Director hire for law firm’s property division; Stewarts Law boosts family team

Sheffield’s Wake Smith Solicitors has recruited a residential conveyancing specialist as its property division continues to see growth.

Chartered legal executive and conveyancing practitioner Anne Emmerson, formerly of Taylor & Emmet, joins the 20-strong team bringing 32 years’ experience to the role and taking on a remit to oversee the operational side of the residential property department.

Neil Salter, director and head of commercial property at Wake Smith, said: “We are delighted that Anne has joined the team and her role, alongside residential conveyancing work, will be to streamline our operations across residential property work. This will involve workflow planning, accommodating new work sources and looking at operational efficiencies so that we can handle an increasing body of work, much of which comes via referral.”
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Stewarts Law has added a senior associate to its divorce and family team in Leeds.

Ed Heaton joins from Mills & Reeve, where he gained more than eight years’ experience in the family law department dealing with clients in Yorkshire and the North. He previously spent nearly seven years at Withers in London.

Heaton is a family mediator and collaborative lawyer, and is the regional chair of Resolution.

His addition to the team follows the recruitment of two other lawyers, Jenny Bowden and Sarah Whitham, to the Leeds team in 2016.

Adrian Clossick, partner and head of divorce and family at Stewarts Law in Leeds, said: “Following hot on the heels of our other appointments, Ed’s arrival is further demonstration of the firm’s commitment to building the team in Leeds. We are delighted to have Ed on board. He is an experienced lawyer with a strong reputation, both in the region and nationally, for assisting high net worth clients with complicated cases. His experience will be invaluable in serving our clients both nationally and internationally.”

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Dominic Love, James Greenwood and Peter Gamble

Hull-based creative marketing agency Strawberry has announced that its founder Jonathan Leafe will be taking up the post of chairman.

His role of managing director is to be filled by current directors James Greenwood and Dominic Love, who will both share the position.

At the same time, Peter Gamble joins the senior management team as client services director. Gamble, originally from Hull, returns to his roots after working at agencies in Leeds and Manchester, including long term stints in director positions at McCann Manchester and Charles Walls Leeds.

Leafe says: “James and Dominic have made a big contribution to the development of Strawberry for over 10 and 20 years respectively and the time felt right to hand the baton on to them to lead the continued exciting development and growth of the agency.”