People: The latest West Midlands hires
Orbis Partners, the Birmingham-based mid-market corporate advisory boutique, has promoted Tom McCarthy to partner and Peter Waplington to director.
The promotions recognise their contribution to a busy period for Orbis, completing six deals in two months with an active pipeline for the next quarter.
Since McCarthy joined the Orbis team in 2018 he has led deals that include the private equity backed management buy-out of Nationwide Hire, the sale of Make My Blinds to Mzuri, and the cross-border sale of re-manufacturer H L Smith to ATC drivetrain.
He said: “I am delighted to be joining the partner group at a time when there is such a vibrant M&A market. The team at Orbis have built an excellent reputation for providing strategic advice to entrepreneurs which I hope to enhance with my years of experience in the Industrials sector.”
Waplington, who joined Orbis in 2019, added: “I’m excited to be working as part of the Orbis leadership team and our Clairfield International partners, to deliver our ambitious growth plans. We have a number of deals on the horizon and look forward to announce further additions to the team in the new year.”
The promotions also follow the recent hire of Harps Dhami, who has joined the Orbis team to co-ordinate cross border opportunities within Clairfield International, its global investment bank partner.
::::
Claritas Tax continues to expand with the announcement of four further recruits to its tax business.
These newest hires include Mat Worrall, joining as head of business development, who has been brought in to lead Claritas’ national growth strategy focused on providing tax consultancy services to general practice accountants.
He is joined by Kenneth Agbeko, providing support as business development executive.
Working across the corporate and valuations service lines, Alex Hall joins Claritas as senior manager. Further supporting the valuations business, as well as adding expertise into the Innovations Reliefs teams, the final joiner to finish 2021 is Dave Whitfield who joins as an experienced cross-disciplinary manager.
Matt Hodgson, partner at Claritas Tax, said: “Adding these four further key staff brings us to twelve new recruits in 2021 and a total team across our offices of forty tax professionals. Demand remains high across all our core service lines, reflecting the continuing need to bolster our resources. As our brand awareness grows, we are increasingly identified as a genuine alternative provider of tax services to the mid-market and an alternative career in tax. It’s our ambition to continue to raise recognition of the Claritas Tax brand and its association with the provision of high-quality, high-value work, thereby attracting the best talent in the market.”
Iain Wright, partner, added: “We’re delighted to welcome Mat, Kenneth, Alex and Dave, who are already making a significant difference to our business. We look forward to introducing them to clients and contacts over the coming months and to supporting them as they continue to build their careers with us”.
::::
Law firm Irwin Mitchell is expanding its planning and environment team with the recruitment of Tracy Lovejoy as a senior associate, based in the Birmingham office and Victoria Tague as an associate in Manchester.
The appointments take the specialist Planning and Environment (P&E) team to nine.
Lovejoy is joining Irwin Mitchell’s Birmingham office as a senior associate from Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors in Shropshire, where she has worked since April 2019 and was an associate lawyer (planning) and head of the planning department.
She has considerable experience on all aspects of planning and environmental law including advising on the section 106 agreements and CIL liabilities for a 600-unit residential development; advising on remediation conditions in respect of a former quarry site and advising a major poultry farm on their planning application, including managing the output of nutrients and emissions into Special Areas of Conservation and drafting the section 106 agreement to support the application.
She has experience of enforcement, injunctions, CPOs, judicial reviews and has advised on various areas including town and village greens, commons land, tree preservation orders, local plan policies, heritage assets, drainage, and ecological matters.
Claire Petricca-Riding, head of planning and environment at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Both Planning and Environment are fast-moving disciplines where our clients need up to date and strategic legal advice to keep ahead of the game. Our team works as a national practice, advising clients all over the UK. We are delighted to have re-enforced our presence in the North and Midlands with these two new appointments.
“Both Tracy and Victoria will play an important part in helping us to fulfil our ambition to provide first-class advice to clients. Both new joiners come with great hands-on experience and good reputations and will be great assets to our practice. We plan to announce further appointments in the new year.”
