People: VWV; Crowe; Hollis; Knight Frank

Law firm VWV has welcomed Morag Roddick as a partner in its corporate team in Birmingham.

Arriving from Eversheds Sutherland, Roddick is an experienced corporate lawyer with expertise across the schools, academies, further education and higher education sectors.

She said: “I am very excited to be able to build on my experience to support the growth of VWV’s award-winning education, charities and life sciences teams.

“At a time of depressed public funding and increasing scrutiny across all the education and charity sub-sectors, VWV clients will be looking to their legal advisors for specialist advice which is practical and demonstrates efficiency and real value for money. My breadth of experience can help ensure we deliver on this commitment.”

Roddick qualified as a corporate lawyer advising on mergers and acquisitions, main market flotations, takeovers, private equity deals, re-financings and joint ventures.

In July 2009 she joined Eversheds Sutherland’s corporate education team and has worked in the education sector since then, advising education and research institutions on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters including collaborative joint ventures, acquisitions and disposals, college mergers, academy projects, group restructurings and grant funding arrangements.

Simon Heald, VWV managing partner, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Morag. Her extensive experience across the education sector, as well as project work for research councils and institutions will only strengthen our legal offering to clients.

“The Birmingham office is important to us, and it is great to see the continued growth of clients, work and staff.”

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Audit, tax, advisory and risk firm Crowe has appointed Martin Chapman as a partner in the firm’s forensic services practice.

Chapman has more than 17 years experience providing forensic accounting and investigation services, and has worked in the broader audit, accountancy and corporate services space for more than two decades.

Crowe is developing its forensic accounting offering and reinforcing its commitment to the Midlands region by establishing a new presence in Birmingham’s city centre. Chapman will be based in Birmingham’s Colmore Building, working with clients both regionally and nationally. He will be joined by Neil Rudd, who has been appointed as senior manager.

Chapman said: “I am absolutely delighted to join Crowe and take a lead role in developing Crowe’s forensic offering in the Midlands.

“The demand for forensic accounting services is rising in tandem with legal disputes resulting from the heightened financial pressure on entities and individuals. With the increased number of firms offering legal funding and the rise of class actions, forensic services will be a vital tool in litigation proceedings. Furthermore, as fraud continues to dominate the criminal landscape amidst economic downturn and a cost-of-living crisis, the requirement for forensic services will be even more prevalent.

“I see this as an exciting time to be a forensic accountant and to be a partner at Crowe.”

Nigel Bostock, chief executive of Crowe, said :“I am very pleased to welcome Martin to the Crowe partnership. His appointment is an important step in our ongoing growth journey and is testament to our commitment to building market-leading teams to offer our clients practical, pragmatic advice in these challenging times.”

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Real estate consultancy Hollis has welcomed two new graduates, one apprentice and one placement student to its Birmingham office.

Daniel Hall and Thomas Hunt join the Birmingham office as building surveyors, with Hall graduating from Liverpool John Moores University with BSc Hons in Building Surveying and Hunt from Sheffield Hallam University with a BSc in Building Surveying.

Luke Standen has started his apprenticeship as a building surveying assistant and Cameron Cassidy-Allen successfully completed a summer placement as an architectural technologist as part of her Architectural Technology degree at Nottingham Trent University.

The individuals form part of Hollis’ 2022 graduate cohort – its largest to date – with 30 graduates, one apprentice and five placement students recruited across 11 locations in the UK and Ireland.

Director and head of Hollis in Birmingham, Simon Goodrick, said: “Hollis has a long history of investing in and training the next generation of real estate professionals and our early careers programme is a great source of pride for the business. It is encouraging to see so many young people interested in forging a career in surveying and building consultancy, and this latest cohort allows our team to tap into a new talent pool of highly qualified and motivated individuals who bring fresh thinking to our Birmingham office. It was great to have Cameron join us over the summer and I look forward to seeing Daniel, Thomas and Luke’s careers flourish at Hollis.”

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Knight Frank says it has seen record revenues and profits generated by the Birmingham office in recent years and continues to invest in its future with a number of recent senior hires, promotions and the recent addition of four graduates.

Over the past nine months, the capital markets team has doubled in size with two new additions, including the most recent hire of Ben Voss-Wood as partner. The business has also strengthened its consultancy arm, most notably with Alan Vandrill joining the projects and building consultancy team as associate, whilst fellow starter Elle Gray also joins at associate level to strengthen the office’s residential Regional investment team.

Birmingham has also taken on four new graduates from this year’s UK intake; Bobbi Sandhu has joined the capital markets team, Sam Benson who will be working in office agency, Richard Orji has joined the projects and building consultancy team and Quiana Higgins in residential development. This takes the total number of graduates beginning their real estate careers in the Birmingham office to nine.

The Birmingham office has also made significant internal promotions with Edward Kennerley of the Midlands logistics and industrial team made partner. Pav Panesar and Ed Price of the automotive national team were promoted to associate level, while Kate Horton was made associate on the residential team. Dan Winter was also promoted to associate having joined the residential development team two years prior.

Ashley Hudson, partner and head of Knight Frank’s Birmingham office, said: “We are thrilled to have boosted our graduate intake here in Birmingham acting in support of our short and long-term visions for the Midlands business. We are of course cognisant of the volatility in the market, with economic uncertainty on the horizon, however we believe in our vision for the future of the business and have confidence in the strength of our team going forward.

“Through the latest graduate additions, senior hires, and internal promotions, we are investing in the future of Knight Frank Birmingham, with a key focus on our diverse young professionals who will help bring about the positive changes, fresh ideas and technological advancements we all want to see shape Knight Frank’s future.”

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