Appointments: Pannone; Rickitt Mitchell; JMW; and more

LAW firm Pannone has strengthened its ranks with two new partners and a solicitor.

The Manchester firm has taken Michelle Shean from Eversheds, where she was a senior associate in its corporate recovery team.

Joining as a partner she said: “The firm’s desire to build and maintain a strong, well rounded corporate recovery practice capable of fully addressing the needs of insolvency professionals, financiers and troubled corporates matches exactly the ambition I want to achieve over the next few years.”

Scott McKinnell has joined as a partner in the firm’s construction and engineering team. He was previously principal solicitor at Laing O’Rourke. He will be responsible for developing the team’s non-contentious work on construction and engineering projects across the UK.

Victoria Dolan has also joined its IP, IT and e-commerce team as a solicitor. She joins from London firm Hogan Lovells where she was an associate in the IP, Media and Technology team.

Pannone managing partner Emma Holt said: “These appointments reflect our ambitious strategy to continue to recruit high-calibre senior lawyers.

“It gives me great pleasure to welcome Michelle, Scott and Victoria to Pannone. All three have excellent reputations in their fields and will make a great contribution to the firm.”

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JAGUAR Land Rover’s parent company Tata Sons has appointed a new chairman to take over the reins from Ratan Tata.

Cyrus P Mistry, already a director with the firm, will begin as deputy chairman before taking over next December when Mr Tata retires after what will have been 21 years in the post.

The decision was taken following a unanimous recommendation of the selection committee.

The firm is family owned but Mr Tata is childless and speculation has run for years as to who his successor would be.

Mr Mistry, currently managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, has been a director of Tata Sons since August 2006.

He is a graduate of civil engineering from Imperial College, London, and has a master of science in management from the London Business School.

His father is construction entrepreneur Pallonji Mistry who owns 18% of Tata Group.

Mr Tata said: “The appointment of Cyrus P Mistry as deputy chairman of Tata Sons is a good and far-sighted choice.

“He has been on the board of Tata Sons since August 2006 and I have been impressed with the quality and calibre of his participation, his astute observations and his humility.

“He is intelligent and qualified to take on the responsibility being offered and I will be committed to working with him over the next year to give him the exposure, the involvement and the operating experience to equip him to undertake the full responsibility of the group on my retirement.”

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MANCHESTER-based corporate finance boutique Rickitt Mitchell has appointed Alex Wilson as an executive.

Wilson joins from PwC where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2009.  He has worked in PwC’s assurance department and its corporate recovery arm.

Stuart Moss, managing partner at Rickitt Mitchell, said: “We have received a record number of new business leads this year, with most enquiries looking ahead to deals in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

“To ensure we are in the right position to handle these levels to our usual high standard, we require a solid team and Alex is a very welcome addition.”

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RECRUITMENT company GAP Personnel has signed former Warrington Wolves player Mike Wainwright to work in its office in the town.

Wainwright, 36, had a professional career which lasted more than 14 years – eight of which were spent at Warrington Wolves, where he played more than 200 games over a ten-year period.

During the 2008/09 season, he took a step back from rugby, playing semi-professionally while working in financial services. More recently, he worked with young offenders before making the decision to change careers.

“I had been thinking about a change of career for a while and had always been really interested in recruitment,” said Wainwright.

“I was already aware of gap personnel and the company was my first choice when applying for posts.”

In his spare time, Wainwright coaches his 13-year-old son’s rugby team and also coaches the Widnes Vikings under 20’s team.

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JMW Solicitors has recruited two new members to its family law team.

Claire Williams joins as an associate and James Brown as a senior associate. Both had previously worked with Beth Wilkins and Catherine Jones, two former Pannone partners who switched to JMW last month.

They will work alongside senior associate Sam Hall, who joined from Mills and Reeve in June, and associate Gianna Lisieki-Cunane.

JMW senior partner Joy Kingsley said: “The partners of JMW are delighted to have attracted lawyers of the calibre of Beth, Catherine, James and Clare.

“Obviously, it is particularly pleasing for me for me to be joined by people with whom I enjoyed a great working relationship over many years. The recruitment  of Beth and  Catherine  bring to eight the number of lateral equity hires made at JMW in the last year and James and Clare are part of an additional 17 lawyer hires.

“The new partners and staff add to the very strong firm already in place managed by Managing Partner Bill Jones, and shows that there can be success for law firms in Manchester despite varied market conditions.”

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LAW firm Stephensons Solicitors LLP has appointed Michael Black to the role of risk manager.

Black joins the Leigh-based firm  after an eight-year term at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, where he worked as a practice standards adviser.

His role involved helping the SRA to develop a supervisory approach to outcomes-focused regulation. Prior to that, he was an internal auditor and internal quality/risk manager for the Legal Services Commission.

His position at Stephensons is a new role within the firm’s risk management team. He will assist the chairwoman and senior management to develop a risk strategy and embed a program of continuous risk management.

He said: “Coming very much from a compliance and consultancy background, albeit from the regulators’ point of view, I’m looking forward to the challenge of applying the skills I’ve gained as a practice standards adviser to the private sector.”

Ann Harrison, Stephensons’ chairwoman, said Black would “play a vital role in managing risk across all areas of our practice, to ensure we remain compliant at all times”.

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LIVERPOOL-based Bluerow Lettings has appointed Chloe Roberts as office administrator. She will be carrying out training at the firm and handling offices duties, organising lettings and dealing with enquiries. 

Helen Griffin-Booth, managing director of Bluerow Lettings said: “We are delighted to welcome Chloe to our team.  She has a wealth of enthusiasm and is going to be a real asset to the firm.

“The rental market is literally thriving at the moment with rental values for property on a rapid increase and demand high.”

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MANCHESTER-based retail and leisure property consultancy Cheetham & Mortimer has recruited graduate David Kos to its professional department.

He will work under partner Andy Guest, and will be responsible for helping with rent reviews, lease renewals and valuations. He will also be involved in investment work.

Andy Guest, partner at Cheetham & Mortimer, said: “David is already proving to be a valuable and motivated member of the team. The appointment will provide the chance to introduce some new thinking but also to strengthen the team and its services to our high profile client base. “