Legal news: Liverpool Law Society Award winners & more

MORE than 300 people attended the Liverpool Law Society’s annual Legal Awards at the city’s Crowne Plaza hotel last week.  

The winners were:

Small firm –  Tracey Miller Family Law
Medium firm – MSB Solicitors
Large firm – Jackson Canter
Solicitor of the Year – Alison Lobb of Morecrofts
Junior Lawyer – Gemma Ellison of Jackson Canter
Work in the Community – Bennett Williams Solicitors
Commercial Law -Hill Dickinson
Private Client – Morecrofts
Regulatory – Weightmans
Niche firm – Donoghue Solicitors
Family Law – 174 Law
Property firm – BLM
Dispute Resolution  – Hill Dickinson
Employment Law – Brabners

Emlyn Williams, president of the society, said: “The awards showcased the legal profession at its best and demonstrated excellence in legal services provided by our member firms in and around Merseyside, from smaller practices to those whose  impact is felt nationally and internationally.”

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Turner Parkinson’s commercial team has advised on an impressive six significant North West deals in the last five weeks.

After acting on £100m worth of deals in April, the city centre firm also worked on Cheshire-based APS Salads’ acquisition of Wight Salads last week.

This recent activity includes the £43m sale of Inspirepac Group to Smurfit Group, advising Warren James on film studio Pinewood Shepperton’s £30m placing, advising Diagnostic Capital on the take private of Casdon Toys and the acquisition of Wight Salads deal.

James Sheridan, who leads Turner Parkinson’s corporate group, said: “I am delighted with our continued development as a team and the quality of deal mandates on which we are working…  Our recent track record continues to see us successfully challenge our much larger competitors.”

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BROWNE Jacobson has seen turnover grow 17% to a record £58.9m for 2014-15, up from £50.2m in 2013-14.

All five of the firm’s offices reported organic growth figures with its Manchester office, which opened in January 2012, seeing turnover grow by 73% and headcount 26% in the last 12 months.

The total number of lawyers at the firm nationally has reached 417, while partner headcount rose from 98 to 103 and overall headcount has reached 787.

Managing Partner Iain Blatherwick, said: “We have had one of our strongest years ever, comfortably exceeding the targets we set ourselves at the start of the year. Manchester has certainly played its part.
 
“Our sector strategy and emphasis on building a strong relationship with our clients is paying dividends with organic growth being delivered across the board.  Our commitment to invest across all our five UK offices means we are in a very strong position to continue to drive the business forward.”

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Sports lawyers from Mills & Reeve’s Manchester offices are working with the League Football Association (LFE) to help educate young footballers and ensure they stay on the right side of the law.

LFE was established by The Football League and The Professional Footballers’ Association over a decade ago to manage the apprenticeship programme at academies in The Football League.

The apprenticeship provides young players with the best opportunity of building and maintaining a career in professional football.

LFE’s work also helps players develop wider life skills that go hand in hand with the responsibilities and challenges they face as aspiring footballers.

As part of this,  Mills & Reeve has develop a ‘legal awareness course’. The initiative, which has already been piloted with players from Bury FC, will teach apprentices about the law surrounding road traffic offences, drug offences, assault, match fixing and inside information and ‘sexting’ and social media.

Matthew Chantler, senior solicitor in the sports team at the Manchester office of Mills & Reeve, said: “Nobody wants to see footballers making front-page news for non-footballing reasons and hopefully, on the back of the seminar, it will minimise the legal and regulatory issues that they could face and allow them to concentrate on football and to achieve their goal of in becoming a professional footballer.”
 

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