Law firm steps up growth drive with partner hires

THE Manchester office of national law firm Shoosmiths is continuing its ambitious growth plans with a raft of partner hires.

The appointment of new partners Rachel Nicholls, Richard Symonds and Richard Millington, brings a wealth of specialist commercial experience and heavyweight industry credentials to the firm as it gears up to move into bespoke premises at the XYZ building in early 2017.

Registered UK and European Trade Mark Attorney Nicholls joins as a partner from the trade mark team at Marks & Clerk.

Nicholls brings more than 15 years’ experience to her role at Shoosmiths, having managed all aspects of the protection, maintenance and commercialisation of trade mark portfolios in a wide variety of sectors including automotive, fashion, sports management, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and finance in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

She will enhance the Shoosmiths Manchester IP and Creative Industries team under the leadership of partner Laura Harper.

Millington joins Shoosmiths from Iconix Brand Group Inc, home of the Umbro, Starter and Peanuts brands, where he was the senior in-house counsel.

He will add his extensive knowledge of structuring commercial deals in the global sports, fashion and entertainment markets to help develop the firm’s established sports practice, as well as boosting its commercial team in the North West.

His appointment will also bring new commercial insight to Shoosmiths’ services for in-house legal teams.
 
Real estate litigation expert Symonds, joins the Manchester real estate practice. His appointment makes Shoosmiths’ property litigation team one of the largest in Manchester, with six specialist lawyers.
 
Symonds has 20 years’ experience in all aspects of real estate litigation and joins Shoosmiths following a 12-year tenure at Addleshaw Goddard.

His appointment is a direct response to growing client demand for real estate litigation support, fuelled by the continued growth of the Manchester real estate practice. The team has tripled its client base in the last three years and is continuing to attract new clients including Renaker Build, FO Developments, Fortis and Student Castle.

The latest raft of recruits follows on from the recent appointment of private client specialist, partner Adam Draper, who joined Shoosmiths to bolster its trust and estate disputes and professional negligence capabilities.
Head of office Vaqas Farooq said: “These specialist partner appointments have been fuelled by demand from within our existing practice groups as a result of an ever-growing client roster.

“By bringing these exceptionally experienced partners on board we are broadening the range of specialist, commercial advice we are able to provide to our clients from a single source and are creating multiple channels for cross-selling.

“We expect further growth over the remainder of the year as we prepare to move into new state-of-the-art offices at XYZ.”