People on the move: Knight Frank; Birchall Blackburn Law; JMW Solicitors; AHOY

Commercial property consultancy Knight Frank has announced four promotions at its Manchester office as part of a national group strategy to develop talent and leadership.

Mark Bamber from the commercial team has been promoted to partner, Tom Dawson from capital markets, to associate and Jessica Murray and Mike Pochin both to senior surveyor.

Bamber said: “Our success working with clients such as Great Places Housing Group and MMU in two of the biggest off-market deals shows the depth of our market knowledge and contacts and my ambition is to further develop that tenant representation role.

“We are engaged on three of the most exciting new schemes in Manchester, 125 Deansgate, Windmill Green and Circle Square. The real skill of the office is the collaborative approach between teams working together to get the very best for our clients.”

Alistair Elliott senior partner and group chairman said: “We we will continue to focus on developing talent and leadership throughout the firm, recruiting and training the best people so that they reach even greater heights for themselves and for our clients.

“These promotions recognise that we will always develop and promote those who are exceptional at providing advice and creating deals. I am delighted for them all and thank them for their continued dedication to the business.”

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North West law firm Birchall Blackburn Law has announced five senior promotions across the region.

Three associates have been promoted to partner. They are Andrea Fairweather of the residential property team in Manchester, Chris Bolton of the personal injury team in Preston and Leanne Malseed of the private client team in Southport.

In addition, Jennifer Gadsdon of the specialist property team in Leyland and Stephanie Costich of the specialist property team in Preston have been promoted to the position of associate solicitor.

Partner at Birchall Blackburn Law Cathy MacCracken said: “These promotions are part of the firm’s ongoing strategic plan to help develop our people. They have all worked extremely hard in their respective fields, made a significant contribution to the firm and embody our core values. It’s great to see them progressing their careers with us.”

Fairweather, who has been with the firm for 11 years, added: “I work closely with our teams in relation to training and development, it’s essential to give our clients clear and up to date advice. This promotion is a great opportunity to further shape and refine the service for our clients.”

After two years at the company, Costich said: “My clients are most often private individuals and companies, I advise on a range of unusual transactions. Being appointed associate solicitor is a great chance to advance in this niche area of the law.”

Birchall Blackburn Law is one of just a handful of law firms to hold nine law society accreditations across its service areas, holding the quality mark in conveyancing, insolvency, family law, child law, wills and inheritance and commercial litigation.

Birchall Blackburn Law has surpassed turnover of more than £16m in the past financial year and has more than 310 employees acting for individual, business and family clients.

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Manchester-based law firm JMW Solicitors has 23 promotions across all levels and departments at the firm.

Head of commercial Litigation Marc Yaffe has been made a full equity partner and joins the firm’s board.

Yaffe joined JMW as a partner in 2012 and has represented a number of high profile individuals in sports-related disputes, including Premiership footballers. He also advises a large number of entrepreneurs and e-commerce companies. He has led the commercial litigation team since May 2015 and since then the department’s billings have increased by 126%.

Corporate recovery and insolvency partner Chris Love who joined the firm in 2015 has been made a Fixed-Share Equity Partner.

There have then been four promotions from senior associate to partner for Paul Burton and Andrew Stone from commercial property and Ann Wong and Sarah Edwards from private client.

There have been seven promotions to senior qssociate for Layla Kelly from the Ccommercial litigation team, Christina McNally from corporate, Caroline McCarron from lawshare, Sam Healey from business crime and regulation, Michelle Arathoon and Sam McElroy from personal injury and Macaila Hannaford in IT.

There are a further 10 promotions from solicitor to associate – Raana Afsarpour and Alistair Ward (personal injury), Shaun Singh and Clare Fleming (private client), Holly Holland and Stephen Reynolds (commercial litigation), Jemma Goldstone (lawshare), Stacie Williams (corporate), Max Swindley (commercial property) and Jo-Anna Jellings (family).

Staff numbers have also increased at JMW from 320 to 380 including seven new partners joining the firm in the past 12 months. There are also 29 new recruits who are currently working their notice and due to join the firm by September 2017 in a variety of roles.

JMW senior partner Joy Kingsley said:“All these promotions are extremely well deserved and we are delighted to invite Marc Yaffe to join the Equity Board. 2016/17 has seen us promote 4 internal candidates to Partnership while hiring 7 Partners from outside of the firm.  For our continued growth it is very important we also retain our talented people by rewarding them for their great efforts.”
JMW recently announced an annual increase in revenue of 11% in the year 2016/17, which has grown to £25m.

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Creative branding agency AHOY has welcomed a number of new staff members in the last month, heralding big changes at the Manchester-based studio.

The agency has brought in a new creative director, in addition to a new account director, copywriter and front-end developer.

Creative director Tom Heaton joins the agency from DS.Emotion, where he held the position of creative director of the Manchester studio for three years, having previously spent almost seven years at Raw, where he advanced to the role of senior designer.

Account director Matt Smith comes to AHOY from creative and marketing recruitment agency Byte Resources, which he founded. Previously, Smith worked for Manchester branding agency True North, and London branding and packaging agency Design Bridge.

Heaton and Smith are joined by copywriter Lorrie Hartshorn, and front-end developer Matthew Mcclatchie.

Managing director Mark Stringer said: “It’s been really refreshing process. Historically, we have had a very low turnover of staff but, with some managers moving on, it’s allowed me to approach people who have been on my radar for a while.

“It has also allowed more junior staff to successfully step forward into more prominent roles in the agency. With a number of new client wins in the bag, and amazing new work coming out of the studio, the confidence is incredibly high.”