People: JMW Solicitors; Howgate Sable; Cullimore Dutton Solicitors; Inteb; Hill Dickinson; Northern Industrial

Full service law firm JMW Solicitors has announced a change in management for its personal injury team with Andrew Lilley and Gordon Cartwright taking over as joint heads of the personal injury team after Richard Powell retired from the firm following more than 25 years of service at the firm and the recruitment of Cathy Leech to head the catastrophic injury team.

They will be aiming to build on their strong success in serious injury work for their expanding client base and their relationships with charities such as CBIT, Headway, Backup and the Spinal Injuries Association.

Andy Lilley has been at JMW for more than 25 years and has substantial experience in the area of catastrophic injury cases. He has dealt with numerous multimillion-pound settlements. He is a trustee for Headway Preston and Chorley, the brain injury association.

Gordon Cartwright joined JMW in September 2001 as a trainee, qualified in 2003 and became a partner in 2009. Gordon also specialises in catastrophic injury claims with a particular interest in paediatric brain injury claims and regularly secures seven-figure settlements for his clients. He is a special ambassador for the Child Brain Injury Trust.

Cathy Leech has joined as partner and head of catastrophic injury from Irwin Mitchell where she was a partner for more than eight years. Cathy specialises in spinal cord, brain and complex injury claims and is well known for her work for many years with the Spinal Injuries Association.

The 50-strong personal injury department at JMW is 22% ahead of its target for the 2022/23 financial year. Under Andy’s and Gordon’s new leadership the focus for the team will be to further develop high grade catastrophic work while continuing to concentrate on niche areas of work such as Armed Forces, travel and cycling claims. They also plan to bring in some further high profile new recruits to the team in 2023.

Andy Lilley and Gordon Cartwright said: “Richard Powell worked tirelessly over 25 years at JMW to make the personal injury team a great success and has left us a highly talented and experienced team. We are looking forward to continuing to strengthen our charitable partnerships and attract high grade catastrophic work to help us grow and strengthen the team further.”

Cathy Leech said: “I am very pleased to have joined the personal injury team at JMW, especially at an exciting time when Andy and Gordon have taken over leadership of an already successful team. I am looking forward to helping to strengthen and grow the team’s charitable partnerships.”

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Executive search firm, Howgate Sable, has announced a number of changes in its senior team including the development of an advisory board to aid the business’s growth plans, alongside a raft of promotions.

Jesper Berg, global head people and culture at PMI, Chris Browne, NED at Norwegian and at Vistry and former COO of easyJet, and Feilim Mackle, an experienced NED in the financial services and technology sectors, all join the new board. Each will advise on a specific area of practice within Howgate Sable’s portfolio. Berg will work with partners on industrial briefs, Browne on aviation and Mackle on financial services and consumer.

From left: Andrew Bailey; Neil Humphreys, Nick Irving

Meanwhile, three former partners have been promoted to director roles: Rebecca Hopkinson, Chris Green and Mark Iliffe. Rebecca and Chris are based in Manchester.

Nick Irving, managing director at Howgate Sable, said: “The Howgate Sable advisory board is an important part of our plans. Each have been clients of ours over the years and understand who we are, how we work and what’s important to us.”

As well as offering support on search mandates, the three advisory board members will work with the Howgate Sable leadership team to challenge the business thinking and provide counsel on strategic matters relating to growth and development.

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Chester legal and financial services firm Cullimore Dutton has appointed a new independent financial advisor to supports its growth.

David Gaweda has joined the company’s in-house financial services team, which is headed up by Dominic Richmond.

David, who lives in Ellesmere, Shropshire, has a wealth of experience and is the fourth IFA in Cullimore Dutton’s growing team which offers support, guidance and expert financial advice.

David Gaweda

Dominic Richmond, Cullimore Dutton’s head of financial services, welcomed David’s appointment, saying: “The combination of our legal and financial services enables us to provide a more comprehensive offering to our clients.”

David said: “It’s great to join the Cullimore Dutton team at such an exciting time with the recent new office move and the continuing expansion of the services the firm is able to offer clients. I hope to add to the team’s broad wealth of expertise and to help broaden our client base across Cheshire and into Shropshire.”

Cullimore Dutton recently moved to a new office in Newgate Street, Chester.

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Energy and sustainability specialist Inteb has embarked on a major expansion programme as the business predicts a further 40% surge in growth for the coming year.

Ongoing development for the Birkenhead-headquartered operation follows a previous 40% boost in trading conditions throughout 2021 as energy, environmental and sustainability issues grew to become one the most challenging global concerns facing commercial operations.

To support and advise Inteb’s client base of large corporates, real estate investors and institutional landlords across the UK, five new members of staff have recently been recruited to join its workforce and associates.

Tom Kelly

This figure is expected to rise to cope with clients’ demands in their efforts to improve energy performance, drive down energy usage and billing and to reduce their carbon footprint.

Chief operating officer, Tom Kelly, heading up Inteb’s teams of energy managers, engineers, chartered surveyors, utility and sustainability specialists at the Wirral waterfront site of Egerton House, said: “The knock-on effects of the COVID pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and price rises in the wholesale energy market have had immense impact on businesses and their profitability.

“Understandably, this period has forced us to appreciate that greater and more innovative ways have to be found not only to look at ways of reducing energy and water usage but also to make sure decarbonisation and sustainability measures are being set in place to meet vital net zero energy targets.”

The five new members of the team cover all of Inteb’s core services of gas, electricity and water procurement, improved sustainability and energy regulatory compliance for its portfolio of blue-chip clients including AstraZeneca, Bupa, NHS, Co-op, British Land, Hitachi and Royal London.

As sustainability assistant, Lili Boyle helps clients reduce carbon emissions and associated environmental impacts, project executive Sophie Gordon manages heat networks and automatic meter reading while Joanne Wiggins and Lyn Hurst, in their roles as utilities support assistants, process and validate clients’ energy bills and administrator Michalis Migos supports the energy procurement team as they prepare tenders and manage contract renewals.

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Law firm Hill Dickinson has announced a raft of new partners as part of the firm’s Accelerated Partner Promotion Scheme.

Fourteen legal directors across four of the firm’s 10 UK and international offices have been elevated to partner status. They join the ranks of the firm’s existing partners, boosting overall partner numbers to more than 150.

From left: Elan Iorwerth, Helen Penfold, Kate Steele

Welcoming the new cohort to the partnership, Hill Dickinson chief executive Peter Jackson said: “As in any sphere of work, there are people who rise to the top very quickly and, in a legal world that is hungry to attract and retain top talent, it is vital that we recognise and reward our potential future leading partners. Our Accelerated Partner Promotion Scheme is designed to achieve that.”

New partners in the North West include: Elan Iorwerth (corporate), Helen Penfold (corporate) and Kate Steel (commercial litigation) in the Liverpool office, and James Down (corporate), Sean Lightfoot (corporate), Helen Evans (real estate) and Richard Allingham (cargo and logistics) in Manchester.

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Northern Industrial has promoted Steve Turner to head of operations to assist the Blackburn spare parts and repairs provider’s global expansion plans.

Turner first joined Northern Industrial in 1999 as an electronics engineer after a six-year career with the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers. Since then, he has progressed through further roles including site engineer and team leader up to service manager, managing a team of 35 electronics engineers at the Blackburn site, prior to his new appointment.

Steve Turner

Now as head of operations, his new role includes oversight of the same plus warehousing, logistics and estates at Blackburn and also the company’s new sites in Germany and Mexico.

Established for more than 40 years, Northern Industrial exports industrial spare parts and repair services to manufacturing and engineering companies across the world.

The company’s central operation in Blackburn holds more than £10m in stock covering in excess of 200,000 parts numbers, sourced from around 1,350 manufacturers.

Turner said: “Having started off fixing circuit boards on the shopfloor over 20 years ago, it has been a great journey for me personally here. Our role is to help companies worldwide keep up and running and avoid costly downtime and manage stressful breakdown situations as quickly as possible. Our new operations in continental Europe and the Americas mean we can offer our customers faster solutions and I’m looking forward to working with our colleagues across the globe to help keep the world running.”