People: Realm Recruitment; Lewis Silkin; Apex Computing Services; The Cumberland; Primas Law
Altrincham-based legal recruitment consultancy Realm Recruit has promoted four members of its specialist team and enjoyed its strongest month on record.
Kelly Reid and Paula Pawlowska have both been promoted to the position of associate director.
Kelly is a specialist in the recruitment of private client and Court of Protection lawyers and the head of Realm’s private client team. She joined the business in 2017 and has more than 15 years of legal recruitment experience.
Paula heads up Realm’s family law niche. She also joined Realm in 2017 shortly after completing her Masters in Law.
Within the business’s marketing team, Lucy Cade has progressed to senior marketing executive and Katherine Memery has been promoted to principal marketing and PR executive.
The news of Realm’s promotions comes shortly after the business celebrated a record-high number of monthly placements and was shortlisted at TheBusinessDesk.com’s North West Business Masters Awards. Realm’s managing director, Duane Cormell, has also been revealed as a finalist at the Northern Gamechangers Awards.
Cormell said: “I’m thrilled to have been able to promote Kelly and Paula to associate director, in recognition of their hard work and dedication to Realm over the last few years, as well as the immensely positive impact they have on the team and their leadership, both in setting an example, and supporting and helping others.
“I’m also delighted to have been able to promote Lucy and Katherine. Both are key members of our marketing team and have been instrumental in helping law firms and legal professionals alike find and benefit from our attraction, retention and recruitment consultancy services.”
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Lewis Silkin has appointed Sally Hulston as a partner in its employment law team. Based in Manchester, she joins the firm from Knights, along with managing associate Carly Mather, senior associate Ed Gregory and associate Hayden Whitman.
Sally Hulston brings nearly 20 years of experience advising on complex employment and workplace matters. In particular, she is a specialist in workplace investigations, including those involving whistleblowing and bullying and harassment claims, as well as high value employment tribunal cases, redundancy projects and board level strategic advice.
Her clients include household name brands across the travel, retail, finance and entertainment industries, to which she regularly provides bespoke in-house training to both HR professionals and senior executives.
Sally Hulston
Among Sally’s previous experience includes spending 14 years building a significant practice at Addleshaw Goddard in both Manchester and Leeds, as well as five years at Eversheds, now Eversheds Sutherland. She is also the co-chair and co-founder of the In-House Employment Lawyers Group (IHELG).
Carly Mather specialises in supporting businesses going through corporate restructures, reorganisations and TUPE transfers, as well as advising on trade union and IR issues, boardroom exits and the employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing projects.
Ed Gregory has a focus on tribunal litigation, employee relations issues, the drafting and negotiation of directors’ service agreements, as well as the negotiation of exit arrangements and severance packages.
Sally, Carly and Ed will be supported by Hayden Whitman.
The new four-strong employment team represents Lewis Silkin’s first market presence in the North of England, which it will be building on and expanding over the years to come. This follows the expansion of the firm over recent years with new offices being opened in both Belfast and Dublin, sitting alongside offices in London, Oxford, Cardiff and Hong Kong.
In addition, the appointments reinforce the firm’s position as one of the UK’s largest specialist employment teams, and brings the total number of employment partners in the team to 31.
Richard Miskella, joint managing partner at Lewis Silkin, said: “It is an incredibly exciting period of growth for the firm, as well as our market-leading employment team, and the addition of Sally, Carly, Ed and Hayden is a welcome next step for us.
“We know Sally and her team through shared clients and it is clear that they are highly regarded and an excellent match for us, both in terms of expertise and sector experience. Further, we are better positioned than ever to support the complex and ever-changing needs of clients across the UK through our newly established presence in the North of England, which we look forward to building upon in the years to come.”
Sally Hulston said: “The employment team at Lewis Silkin is widely renowned and truly second-to-none, so I’m thrilled to be joining them and playing a part in their continued success. We bring to bear significant specialist expertise in areas like workplace investigations, recruitment, and restructuring, which is a natural fit for the firm and its clients. Over the longer-term, our presence in the North provides the firm with an important platform for future growth and expansion, which is an exciting prospect.”
The team will be based in serviced offices at 1 Balloon Street in Manchester.
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Salford Quays-based Apex Computing Services has appointed four new team members.
Stuart Smith has been appointed as field engineer and his remit will involve on-site servicing and the updating and maintenance of devices. Stuart has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years in a range of different roles from IT support to IT management.
From left: Daniel Shone, Stuart Smith, John Blackburn, Shaed Hussain, Noah Connolly, Chris Gorman
Shaed Hussain joined in July as a qualified IT Engineer. Shaed began working in IT in 2014 and he then carried on studying and graduated in Computing in Business (Bsc). With a wealth of technical expertise, he provides technical support across various core systems for the firm’s customers.
John Blackburn has filled the role of marketing and communications manager and will be responsible for all marcomms activity as well as optimising the customer experience.
Noah Connolly has joined as part of the National Apprenticeship scheme.
Apex CEO, Chris Gorman, said: “We have had a fantastic last few years in terms of business performance and we feel that now is the right time to grow our team with these great appointments. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have been investing heavily in our team over the last 18 months.”
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A digital expert with experience in leading transformative projects for Morrisons and Halfords has joined The Cumberland as a non-executive director, signalling another leap forward in the building society’s modernisation plans, it said.
Anna Barsby has wide experience in using technology to drive change in businesses that have also included TUI Travel and Whitbread.
Her appointment to the board at The Cumberland is the latest step in plans to focus on changing consumer patterns which have seen a number of key appointments in recent months and a commitment to invest heavily in new technology.
Anna Barsby
Anna said: “My whole career has been about change and transformation – both in technology and in business. I have worked in a wide breadth of organisations, but mostly consumer industries with lots of customer facing work.
“I’ve lived through lots of digital and technology and data transformations and it feels like that’s a skill set that The Cumberland could do with for the next few years as we undertake such a fundamental change to our system landscape.”
Anna’s appointment comes a few months after The Cumberland created a new post of chief information officer and then appointed a leading innovator in the finance world to the role.
Ian Stacey joined with 36 years of experience in banking and finance transformation with organisations including Barclays, EY and KPMG, and he will be responsible for the strategic planning around The Cumberland’s major investment programme in digital technology.
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Boutique commercial law firm, Primas Law, has appointed a new commercial partner as it continues to deliver its growth plans for the year.
Rory O’Hare joins the firm as a specialist commercial and non-contentious intellectual property lawyer, adding to the firm’s extensive expertise in this area.
Rory’s work includes advising clients on a range of areas including IP exploitation and brand protection, risk management, privacy and data, and all types of commercial arrangements.
Prior to joining Primas, Rory spent 12 years working in-house with global brands, such as New Balance and Dreamworks, owner-led start-ups and private equity-backed companies across the ecommerce, retail, media and technology sectors.
Rory O’Hare
The news comes following a period of significant growth for the firm, including various hires and promotions and new client wins.
Rory said: “I’m thrilled to have joined Primas Law at such an exciting time for the firm. It’s clear that the business has such ambitious growth plans moving forward and I’m delighted to be a part of that.”
Primas Law has offices in Manchester, Cheshire and London and specialises in employment, real estate, insolvency, litigation and corporate and commercial law.
Adam Kerr, managing partner, said: “Rory’s experience on the client side of the fence means he really understands what commercial clients need, and how they want their legal services to be delivered. It was also clear from my first meeting with Rory that he was going to fit into the firm really well and I’m pleased to say that’s exactly what has happened. We’re delighted to have him on board.
“Rory joining the team comes at a particularly exciting time for us as a firm, too, with exciting new developments in the pipeline.”
