People: Law firms announce string of promotions; Chamber welcomes new director
Anthony Collins Solicitors (ACS) has a trio of partner appointments.
Senior associate solicitors Madhur (Maddie) Sharma and Maria Ramon from the private client department and Ann Houghton from the personal injury and clinical negligence department have moved up the ladder.
Sharma has more than 20 years experience as a childcare solicitor, specialising in cases where the local authority seeks to remove a child, along with disputes between parents in relation to children, primarily representing the child in these cases.
Maria Ramon
Ramon has more than 17 years experience as a family solicitor and is an accredited family mediator with the Family Mediation Council. She helped set up the family mediation practice at ACS, which is now the leading family mediation offering in Birmingham. She specialises in high net value divorces and complex children disputes as well as prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.
Ann Houghton
Houghton has extensive experience across specialist areas of personal injury and clinical negligence, including cases arising from road traffic accidents, accidents at work and accidents in public places. Additionally, she represents people who have sustained injury or harm due to substandard medical care.
Ann has been involved in complex and high-value claims over the years, some of which have resulted in multi-million-pound settlements.
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Irwin Mitchell has announced three senior associates and eight new associates within its Birmingham office as part of this year’s promotion round.
The newly promoted senior associates are Charlotte Avery, Alex Shorey and Matt Smith.
The new associates are Katherine East, Laura Willis, Kathryn Salt, Jade Elliott-Archer, Lucy Macklin, Ryan Blake, Richard Sweetman and Stuart McDonald.
Across the firm nationally there have been 13 new partners, 28 senior associates and 56 associates.
Andrew Tucker, group chief executive at Irwin Mitchell, said: “To announce these new partners, senior associates and associates makes me extremely proud and it is another clear sign of the continued emphasis we place on investing and developing in our people.
“These latest promotions show our strength and breadth across the group whilst also recognising the significant contribution our colleagues make to our business in terms of supporting our clients and creating the right culture for future success.”
In addition to the 13 new partners, Irwin Mitchell recruited 17 new partners during 2021/22 financial year across teams including commercial, public law and human rights, will disputes, real estate and employment law.
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One of the longest serving staff members at Shropshire Chamber of Commerce has been promoted to the senior management team.
Rachel Owen joined the organisation 12 years ago and has held a series of different positions including trade administrator, training co-ordinator, relationship manager, and most recently membership manager.
She has now been promoted to a new role as director of member engagement.
She said: “I’m honoured and very excited to have been given this opportunity to play such an integral role in increasing our member engagement and supporting the wider business community.
“On a personal level, it has also shown me how much I have grown over my years with the Chamber, and I feel privileged to be in this position.”
Shropshire Chamber chief executive Richard Sheehan said: “This is a well-earned appointment for Rachel, who has built up a rounded knowledge of what we are, and why we exist through her involvement in so many aspects of Chamber activities.
“We have embarked on a journey to deliver unprecedented growth in membership that will support the operational sustainability of the Chamber in the coming years, and Rachel will be playing a pivotal role.”
