Appointments: Knights; Mills & Reeve; Brabners; Ph.Creative
KNIGHTS Solicitors has added a senior hire to its Chester-based team following the appointment of William Bankes as corporate partner.
He has 15 years of corporate law experience, spending most of his time in London at Fladgate and Pinsent Masons. After relocating to North Wales in 2011 he joined Gamlins.
Mr Bankes said: “Knights offers me the opportunity to conduct a broad scope of high quality, corporate work and this is part of what attracted me to the firm. It is also clear that this is a business with exciting and ambitious expansion plans where I can contribute to the growing corporate practice.”
Sally Wightman, managing partner at Knights in Chester, said: “William’s appointment is significant because it clearly strengthens our offering of quality, city expertise without having to gravitate to Manchester, Liverpool or London.”
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MILLS & Reeve, the national law firm, has appointed Simon Pedley as a partner in the commercial disputes team in its Manchester office.
Mr Pedley, formerly at Pannone, specialises in commercial, corporate and high net worth private client litigation matters.
He previously headed Pannone’s contested trusts and estates practice, which was ranked as the best in the region by the Legal 500 guide.
Mark Hovell, head of Mills & Reeves’ Manchester office, said: “We are delighted to welcome Simon to the firm. His skills will complement the existing Manchester-based corporate disputes practice led by Richard Dawson-Gerrard. Simon’s appointment is another significant step in implementing the plans to grow our Manchester office following the merger with George Davies in June 2013.”
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LAW firm Brabners has appointed Oliver Andrews as a solicitor in its dispute resolution team and Jonathon Waterhouse to its real estate team.
Oliver Andrews joins the firm from Oglethorpe, Sturton & Gillibrand in Lancaster and specialises in commercial litigation with a particular expertise in commercial contract claims and disputes concerning directors, shareholders and companies.
Jonathon Waterhouse acts for a range of commercial clients and on behalf of landed estates in relation to lease transactions, acquisitions and disposalsHe previously worked for Napthens.
Ross Shine, partner in Brabners’ Preston office, said: “We are delighted to welcome Oliver and Jonathon to Brabners. We spent quite a while looking for the right people to fill these positions as it’s important to us to recruit candidates of the highest calibre who are dedicated to providing the best legal advice for our clients. These recent appointments demonstrate that as a firm we continue to strengthen our presence in Preston and expand as a business.”
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ONLINE marketing firm Ph.Creative has made three appointments.
The Liverpool-based agency has hired Amanda Edmonds as account director, and Nikki Girvan and Phil Thomas as account managers.
Joining from Click Consult, Edmonds has worked with brands such as Virgin Balloons, Allianz Worldwide Care and Morplan. She will oversee Ph.Creative’s new business strategy for the inbound marketing team, as well as generating organic growth amongst existing customers.
Girvan and Thomas will manage client activity, helping to deliver digital strategies. Girvan has eight years’ experience of both national and regional journalism, as well as five years in consumer PR, and joins from Tangerine PR.
Thomas previously spent five years running his own copywriting business working with clients such as FibreSpeed on behalf of the Welsh Government.
