People: Beyond Corporate Law; Arbuthnot Specialist Finance; Lambert Smith Hampton; UHY Hacker Young; Azets; Mills & Reeve

Hannah Al-Shaghana

North West practice, Beyond Corporate Law, has appointed Hannah Al-Shaghana as partner to support the growth of its real estate team.

Hannah has worked in the real estate sector for more than 14 years, encompassing all aspects of commercial property work including acquisitions and disposals, secured lending and all landlord and tenant transactions. Hannah has experience working for a variety of clients including business owners, corporate entities, pension schemes and entrepreneurs in the industrial, retail, office and leisure sectors.

She has received several accolades throughout her successful career but most recently has been recognised as a “Next Generation Partner” in the Legal 500 in both 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.

Her appointment comes following a successful year of growth for Beyond Corporate’s real estate team. In 2021 alone, the team has advised on the construction of 1,700 hotel bedrooms, as well as the development of circa 600 care home beds. The team has also received instructions on more than 1,200 residential units in the past year, in excess of 50% from new clients of the firm.

The specialist practice is part of Beyond Law Group, a disruptive legal business whose strategy is to create, build and manage specialist legal practices under one modern business structure.

Hannah said: “It is an honour and privilege to be joining such a highly regarded law firm with a fresh and dynamic business model like no other. I hope to build on the solid foundations that the real estate team has already established and bring new opportunities for growth and success to the firm and wider group in the years to come.”

Matt Fleetwood, the group’s founder, said: “The valuable knowledge and diverse expertise delivered by Hannah will bring a great sense of strength and depth to the real estate team and will help to guide us through our fastest period of growth and success. We’re going into the new year feeling very excited and we are looking forward to growing all practices within the group further, with some exciting announcements coming up in 2022.”

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Arbuthnot Specialist Finance, the short term property finance subsidiary of Arbuthnot Latham, has expanded its business development capabilities with the appointment of Danny Power and Dean Taylor to business development managers. The team’s expansion is in response to the accelerating property market that is predicted to grow by five per cent over the next year according to property website Rightmove.

Danny Power, who is responsible for business development in the North West, has a wealth of experience, having held numerous roles in the short term property finance sector. He joins Arbuthnot Specialist Finance from Bridge Help, where he was a business development manager.

Danny Power

Dean Taylor, who will be focusing on London and the South, and has worked at Barclays, Metro Bank and Nationwide, where he held a range of senior roles in real estate finance.

Matthew Anderson, head of sales, Arbuthnot Specialist Finance, said: “It’s fantastic to see ASFL expand, welcoming Dean and Danny to the team. Both will help to drive business development as we pursue future growth. I look forward to working together to provide critical financing to property professionals up and down the UK.”

Danny Power said: “The market is developing fast and bridge finance and short term development finance are now viewed as vital tools for property professionals. I am excited to announce my move to ASFL and welcome the opportunity to work with Dean Taylor, who has joined at the same time.”

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Property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) has expanded its building consultancy team with the appointment of Pete Ewbank as associate director into its Manchester office. The appointment seeks to strengthen LSH’s position across the North West region with Pete tasked with developing the firm’s building consultancy capabilities throughout the region.

With a career spanning more than 15 years, Pete has a vast range of experience in the commercial, office, residential, retail, hospitality and residential sectors and has worked closely with a number of both landlord and tenant clients on both a national and regional level.

Pete Ewbank

Pete is highly experienced in both professional building surveying and project management where his track record includes working on large portfolios of both refurbishment and new build schemes. The appointment adds to LSH’s already established national b uilding consultancy offering, providing clients with technical and commercial expertise across multiple sectors.

The move sees Pete join LSH’s Manchester office following similar roles at a number of organisations including AECOM, Trident Building Consultancy and Savills. He said: “The North West has enormous potential with LSH’s building consultancy team already involved in a number of exciting projects across the region and I aim to continue to provide our clients with a best in class service that they have come to expect from us over the years.”

Dudley Cross, head of building consultancy-south at Lambert Smith Hampton said: “Pete is the first of a number of senior appointments that we will be announcing for the team in the first quarter of 2022 as we look to expand and develop our service offering across the region. Pete brings with him a wealth of experience which will assist in our growth and delivery of first class services to both our existing and expanding client base.”

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The Manchester office of national accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young has expanded its corporate finance team with the appointment of new partner, Peter Williams.

Peter brings with him a wealth of experience from Big 4 PwC and other regional Top 20 firms. He specialises in advising business owners on a broad spectrum of services, primarily assisting clients on transactional requirements such as business disposals, acquisitions, management buyouts and buy ins, fundraising and private equity related deals.

David Kendrick, left, and Peter Williams

He brings additional experience to areas UHY Hacker Young currently advises on in a variety of sectors such as technology, media and telecoms, manufacturing, infrastructure and logistics. The group has 90 partners and more than 530 professional staff working from 23 locations around the country.

Peter said: “David and the team have built a solid pipeline of work which I’m excited to help build upon to meet our growth aspirations and promote the UHY brand further. There is a fantastic culture at the firm and I’m looking forward to meeting, and working with, my new colleagues.”

David Kendrick, partner and head of corporate finance, said: “Over the past couple of years we have remained extremely busy, despite COVID and the current pipeline is stronger than ever. I have no doubt Peter will drive the growth of the business in the coming years as we continue to develop the corporate finance team in Manchester.”

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Accountancy and business advisors to SMEs, Azets, has appointed Alex Greenwood, Bernie Chiu and Craig Keating to strengthen its personal and corporate tax services offering in the North West.

Alex has joined as a senior manager. She is based in Azets’ Manchester office, covering the firm’s six offices in the North West. She has more than 30 years’ experience of providing complex and specialist tax advice to individuals, businesses, trusts and estates. As a result of her experience in both tax planning and compliance, she provides a comprehensive all round service to clients.

She said: “I’m excited to join the well regarded tax team at Azets at a time when the business is undergoing a rapid expansion and work with their varied client base. My experience in advising high net worth individuals, SMEs, and owner-managed businesses will support Azets’ clients navigate the current tax legislation.”

Bernie Chiu joins as a corporate tax manager in Azets’ Manchester office having previously worked at several independent tax practices in the North West.

Bernie Chiu and Alex Greenwood

Over his tax career Bernie has worked with clients from a variety of sectors from companies in the manufacturing sector to professional football clubs and theatre production companies in the media and creative sectors. Since qualifying as a chartered tax adviser, Bernie has appeared annually as a guest lecturer at the University of Manchester for students in the BSc Accounting Programme in relation to tax ethics and his experience working in tax.

Craig Keating has been appointed as an assistant manager in the bar team specialising in advising barristers with their tax and accounting matters.

Rob Wardle, head of tax at Azets in the North West, said the trio brings considerable expertise and a strong track record in advising companies, entrepreneurs, wealthy individuals and their families on all aspects of corporate tax, inheritance tax and other personal tax matters.

Last year Azets in the North West announced ambitious plans to grow within the next five years by increasing revenue three-fold by a combination of organic growth and compatible acquisitions creating around 100 jobs and taking turnover to around £45m.

Karen Chadwick,tax partner at Azets in Manchester said: “The region is booming thanks in part to high profile investments and it’s a great time to join a growing firm with ambitious plans.”

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The Manchester IT/IP team of Mills & Reeve has welcomed four recruits following a series of client wins.

Among the four lawyers recruited to help meet growing client demand is John Driver who has joined as a senior associate from EY Riverview. He advises on complex commercial supply contracts across professional services, outsourcing, IT software/hardware and SaaS.

Sam Wigley and Laura Wells have joined as associates. Sam, who was previously at Pinsent Mason, works on a wide variety of data matters for both public and private sector clients, while Laura advises on SaaS agreements, software licensing, data protection, compliance and digital marketing regulations.

John Driver

Fabian Ashurst, who has joined as a newly-qualified associate following his successful training contract with Mills & Reeve, focuses on technology in the sports sector.

Paul Knight, partner and head of the Manchester team, said the appointments reflect the increase in demand following significant client wins and the team’s growing presence in its key sectors including technology, healthcare, education and sport.

Recent work highlights include advising UK Research and Innovation on the collaboration agreements with IBM for the creation of the £210m Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation in Cheshire.

Paul said: “The technology sector is a growth area for the Manchester office, and we pride ourselves on advising clients on the latest development including quantum computing, blockchain AI and automation. Our sector’s strength, particularly in HealthTech, EdTech and data law, has seen significant client wins, therefore, we have recruited specialist lawyers with the right skills to meet the increasing demands.”

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