Endless Nicks the headlines
THE strength of Yorkshire's turnaround and restructuring community was celebrated at the annual St Nick Awards last night.
The event, organised by Leeds-based buyout specialist Endless, saw KPMG, Barclays, Sanderson Weatherall win two awards apiece and Phillip Mudd of Walker Morris named a 'Living Legend' after a vote among the 300 guests who attended the event at the new OK Karaoke bar in Leeds.
The awards raised money for Jane's Appeal, established by the late Jane Tomlinson CBE to raise funds for children's and cancer charities. Her husband Mike was a guest at the event.
KPMG, which handled the controversial administration of Leeds United this summer – which eventually saw the club docked 15 points after it had been relegated to League One, was named Big Firm Accountants of 2007 
while the head of its Leeds restructuring team, Richard Fleming, who led the Leeds United job, won Accountant of the Year.
Barclays won the title of Most Supportive Bank and Steve Hopkins of Barclays was named Banker of the Year.
Meanwhile Leeds-based property surveyors Sanderson Weatherall was named Best Agency while the firm's Mark Weston was Agent of the Year.
BDO Stoy Hayward won Mid Tier/Boutique Restructuring Firm of the year, DLA won the Large Law Firm category and Cobbetts was named best Mid Tier/Boutique Law Firm.
Five Arrows won Most Supportive Asset Based Lender and Dave Culpan of GMAC won Asset Based Lender of The Year.
There were joint winners in the Rising Star category with Victoria Burgess of Walker Morris and Caroline Klempka of Hammonds sharing the title.
Andy Smith of Addleshaw Goddard was named Lawyer of the Year.
Nicola Elcock of Fox Lloyd Jones won PA of the Year.
The winner of the second St Nick Living Legend award saw Phillip Mudd gain the title after a vote on the night ahead of William Ballman of Cobbetts, Gary Blackburn of BWC, Tom Flannery of RBS Invoice Finance, Stephen Long of HSBC, Roger Marsh of PwC and Geoffrey Martin of Geoffrey Martin & Co.
