People: Inquesta; O’Connors Legal Services; Myerson Solicitors; Sales Geek; 21Digital
Forensic accounting and insolvency practice Inquesta has hired a specialist from national law firm Pinsent Masons to head a new team as it expands its range of services to corporate and individual clients.
Noreen Iqbal has joined Radcliffe-based Inquesta as forensic director to lead the new business intelligence, fraud investigation and fraud prevention team.
Inquesta co-founder and forensic division director, Rob Miller, said the new service was a logical step in the firm’s development as it expands its offering and geographical reach.
He said fraud cases are likely to surge as a result of the pandemic, and the new division will equip Inquesta with the capacity to meet demand. Further recruitment is planned to grow the new team.
Rob said: “With Noreen’s vast experience and knowledge, she is the ideal person to lead our new team. We are extremely excited about the prospects for this new service offering.
“The number of fraud cases is bound to rise as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis, due to a combination of factors. More people have been working from home with greater autonomy, which means the financial controls that companies have had in place will not have been applied as rigorously as before the pandemic. The financial pressures of the pandemic itself will also have created opportunities for fraud, leading to more corporate investigations.
“Our business intelligence service can provide valuable information so companies can make informed decisions about clients, suppliers and individuals coming into their ranks and mitigate risks. Our due diligence service, as part of this offering, will flag up credit problems and potential financial and regulatory risks attached to individuals and companies, across the UK and internationally.
“The third aspect of the new team’s operation will be fraud prevention, and will involve experts led by Noreen reviewing the financial controls in place within our clients’ businesses and identifying any red flags or risk factors.”
Noreen, who lives in Bury, spent four years at Pinsent Masons, where she worked on a number of major cases across multiple jurisdictions involving fraud, money laundering, the tracing of funds and assets, internal corporate investigations and Ponzi schemes. She has extensive experience of working on matters involving regulatory bodies such as the Serious Fraud Office, Financial Conduct Authority, the European Commission and police forces, and reporting to chief executives across the globe.
Before joining Pinsent Masons, she worked at Menzies and BTG Global Risk Partners, part of Begbies Traynor Group. She said: “Inquesta is well established across the North West and throughout the country, and I’m really excited to join the practice to build a new service offering focusing on corporate crime and investigations, litigation, disputes, fraud prevention, due diligence and compliance.
“We will be taking a proactive approach with clients to ensure they are on the front foot if they are subject to investigation by regulatory bodies or HM Revenue & Customs, are commissioning internal investigations or have staff returning to the office and need to review their financial procedures, controls and processes to prevent fraud.”
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Liverpool and London-based business lawyers and advisers, O’Connors Legal Services, has appointed insurance lawyer Alison Chu as a solicitor.
A prestigious Middle Temple Scholarship candidate, Alison was called to the Bar in 2010 before cross qualifying as a solicitor in 2013. Alison joins from the Manchester office of DWF where she handled and supervised occupational health related claims and contractual arrangements for major insurers.
O’Connors provides a unique blend of corporate, commercial, insurance and regulatory advice, helping clients manage the risks in strategic projects and transactions, wherever in the world they are doing business. A significant proportion of the firm’s work is for major insurance buyers, insurance businesses, legal businesses and investment funds and the firm represents some of the UK’s most innovative and successful organisations.
Alison Chu
Alison’s appointment increases O’Connors’ capacity to handle the growth of its insurance related project work for the firm’s national and international clients, as well as bringing additional regulatory resource to support the team’s wider financial services work.
Alison said: “I chose to join O’Connors because I want to work in a genuine team environment where I can use all my current knowledge and expertise whilst increasing the variety of the advisory and project work I get involved in. I feel confident that O’Connors will help me achieve all these things because of its rare blend of technical skills and its industry sector reputation.”
Director, Paul O’Connor, said: “Alison is another exciting appointment for us as we continue to build our team for the future. We are delighted to welcome her to the firm. Alison will be working closely with me, Kathryn Howard, Josh Bates, Mike Ainsworth and our other colleagues as we continue to deliver ground breaking corporate, commercial, insurance and regulatory solutions to our business clients.”
Alison arrives hot on the heels of corporate lawyer Craig Geraghty who recently joined the firm as an associate.
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Altrincham-based Myerson Solicitors welcome the arrival of senior associate, Karen Taylor who joins its ever-growing real estate litigation team.
As a member of the Property Litigation Association, Karen has more than 12 years’ property litigation experience. She joins Myerson from Slater Heelis, after having spent 10 years at commercial property specialists Land Law.
Seán Hackett, partner and head of real estate litigation at Myerson Solicitors, said: “Despite the challenges of 2020 due to the pandemic and the resulting shift to remote working, the Myerson team have continued to thrive and develop, welcoming nine new real estate specialists to the real estate group this year. So, we are thrilled to welcome Karen to the real estate litigation team.
“Having technical knowledge is one thing, but applying it imaginatively in order to provide practical and commercial advice is another and we are delighted Karen has joined us with a wealth of experience that will be invaluable for our clients.”
From left: Laura Pile, Jennifer Hartley, Karen Taylor, Seán Hackett
Karen joins during an exciting time of growth and development. The real estate group at Myerson is one of the largest independent practices in the North West, it says, which recently won ‘Property Team of the Year’ at the Manchester Legal Awards 2021. The group has expanded over the past few years, now including specialists within construction, property litigation, residential and commercial property developments.
Karen said: “I am hugely excited to be joining the team at Myerson. The firm’s credentials and employee values are exceptional, as well as this year having won Property Team of the Year 2021. The property team have played an instrumental role in the success of flagship projects across the UK and Manchester region for decades and I am thrilled to get to work on these inspiring projects with them.”
Laura Pile, partner in the real estate litigation team, said: “Karen joining the team has ensured we can continue to provide our clients with our high level expertise and support. The real estate group at Myerson consists of over 31 specialist lawyers, including six partners. With now four expert real estate litigators within the team, we are proud to act on behalf of a wide range of clients.”
Karen has particular expertise in advising landlords and tenants in relation to rent arrears, dilapidations, break rights, forfeiture, alienation and lease renewals. She is highly skilled in assisting clients with claims arising out of adverse possession, easements and covenants. She is ranked as a key lawyer within The Legal 500.
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International training company Sales Geek has expanded its presence in Lancaster & South Lakes with the first new team appointment by one of its regional franchises.
Tony Capper launched Sales Geek Lancaster & South Lakes in October 2020 on the back of a sales career stretching back to 1997, including 13 years as business development director at BT.
He is now joined by Christian Coates, who has previously built Barrow-based digital agency PinkSquare Media to a 12-strong team and a major force on the South Cumbrian creative scene.
With headquarters in Blackburn, Sales Geek is a provider of sales training to a wide variety of businesses, with clients across the UK and internationally.
Tony Capper and Christian Coates
Tony Capper said: “Hiring a sales director is a big deal for any company. If you are a small or medium sized business, it is critical that you get it right. But a sales director’s salary can be prohibitive, particularly if you want the very best sales leaders with significant experience and a great track record in sales growth.
“With the Your Sales Director package, we provide top level sales leadership to transform sales operations and the people within and behind them, working with a huge variety of businesses. What’s great about bringing Christian on board is that we, in fact, both have very different client experiences, so we can really broaden out the expertise we offer. It’s not like having just another me, we both bring something unique to the table.”
Christian Coates said: “I’m very proud to have built PinkSquare Media to a level where I don’t need personally to be part of the team on a day-to-day basis. Our fantastic team are fully able to operate to the highest standard autonomously. That’s a situation most smart business owners want to get to, so joining Sales Geek allows me to share my experience in achieving that, while also helping them with short term solutions, like smashing their sales targets.”
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Blackburn digital agency 21Digital has appointed Alex Feathers as SEO executive and Sarah Chan as digital marketing apprentice.
Alex brings with her five years’ experience in ecommerce and digital marketing from in-house roles in fine jewellery retail. She also has a first class degree in Marketing Management and Digital Media from UCLAN and holds an IDM (Institute of Data & Marketing) certificate in Direct & Digital Marketing.
Sarah joins as digital marketing apprentice from Burnley College which has been 21Digital’s training partner since 2014.
Sarah Chan and Alex Feathers
21Digital managing director, Sam Fletcher, said: “We are very pleased to bring Alex and Sarah onboard. At 21Digital, we’re dedicated to developing young talent and watching it blossom and grow. While Alex has a huge wealth of experience from her in-house roles, we’re looking forward to helping her develop her agency-side skills, working with our wide range of home and garden, automotive and DIY clients.
“We are very proud to work with Burnley College to develop local talent through apprenticeships and hope that Sarah might be one of the many apprentices that choose to stay on with us after their apprenticeships end.”
21Digital specialises in lead generation and ecommerce, with a range of digital marketing services including web design, web development, SEO, Google Ads, digital consultancy, social media marketing and email marketing.
