People: New arrivals at HR, employment law and health and safety firm; Solicitors hired at commercial law practice; Fraud and financial crime law specialist recruited; and more
West Yorkshire HR, employment law and health and safety firm, Howarths, has grown its advisory team with a pair of new appointments.
Sharon Escritt has joined the company as Senior HR Adviser and will provide guidance on various human resources issues to the firm’s 500 strong client base.
Escritt has more than 15 years’ HR management experience working in roles in the public and private sectors, predominantly across manufacturing, engineering and logistics and is MCIPD qualified.
Freya Dearman has joined the company as an HR and Employment Law Assistant, having completed a period of work experience at the family-run firm and studying Law at The University of Leeds.
Dearman will support the firm’s employment law team in drafting policies and undertaking employment law research to assist the senior team.
The company has also promoted Louise Rogers to the position of Sales and Marketing Manager, where she will oversee sales and marketing strategy working alongside external PR and marketing teams.
The latest appointments follow a period of record growth for Howarths, which announced it had recorded £1m turnover in its annual financial results for its financial year ending June 2019.
Gavin Howarth, Managing Director at the business, said: “Sharon and Freya’s appointments take our head count to 21 at a very exciting time of growth for the business. We are actioning plans to increase turnover by at least 10% each year over the next three years and to recruit another six members of staff to the team.
“The addition of Sharon and Freya is part of these plans and they will both be instrumental in supporting our team and clients as we move forward.”
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Emily Bond
Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has boosted its growing health practice with two new hires. Associate solicitors Emily Bond and Caroline Oldfield both join the firm’s health team in the Leeds office.
Bond qualified as a solicitor in March 2018 and joins Hill Dickinson from DAC Beachcroft, where she worked within the clinical risk team. As well as practising in healthcare law, she has extensive experience in personal injury claims, having already worked in this area for nearly six years. In her new role she will represent GPs, dentists and other healthcare professionals in clinical negligence matters.
Oldfield joins the firm’s health team as a property lawyer, from Goodman Grant Solicitors, advising on a range of commercial property matters, including landlord and tenant matters, acquisitions and disposals, as well as corporate support. She specialises in working for NHS trusts and foundation trusts, CCGs and GPs.
Bond said: “I have really enjoyed my first month at Hill Dickinson, having been made to feel very welcome by both the Leeds office and the health litigation team extending across Manchester, Liverpool, and London.
Caroline Oldfield
“I am looking forward to developing my career within a leading healthcare team that has an abundance of expertise in defending clinical negligence claims.”
Rob McGough, Head of Commercial Health and the Hill Dickinson Leeds team, welcomed both Caroline and Emily into their roles. He said: “I am delighted to welcome Caroline and Emily to the growing Leeds office. Their appointments show our intent to offer a full joined up service to our clients.”
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Exchange Chambers has continued its fast-paced expansion in Leeds by welcoming Andrew Haslam QC as a new member.
Haslam joins Exchange from St Pauls Chambers in Leeds. He becomes the set’s third Leeds-based silk, joining Chris Tehrani QC and Nick Johnson QC. In total, Exchange Chambers now has 17 silks and over 170 members across the North.
Called to the Bar in 1991, Haslam has particular expertise in fraud and financial crime for both the prosecution and defence. Specialist areas include mortgage, VAT, financial services, investment fraud and fraudulent trading.
He receives instructions for advice pre-charge by the Serious Fraud Division (SFD), the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and other regulatory bodies, including National Trading Standards.
He said: “Since opening in Leeds, Exchange Chambers has made giant strides. Now established as one of the leading sets on the North Eastern Circuit, their silks and juniors have a national reputation for excellence.
“Chambers’ expertise in fraud and financial crime sits particularly well with my practice.”
Tom Handley, CEO at Exchange Chambers, said: “We are delighted to welcome Andrew to Chambers. Having taken silk last year, he is an outstanding criminal practitioner with a proven track record in heavyweight fraud and financial crime.
“To strengthen our Leeds Chambers with a silk of Andrew’s calibre is a very positive reflection on the progress we are making.
“We continue to invite applications from high-quality barristers across all locations, practice areas and levels of seniority.”
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Peter Double has been appointed Managing Director of Andel, Britain’s largest manufacturer of specialist in-building water, oil and gas leak detection systems.
He was formerly Operations Director at the company, overseeing operations across all three divisions.
He joined Huddersfield-based Andel in 2000 as the seventh employee and first install engineer. Double rose through the ranks becoming operations director to the previous Managing Director and now succeeds Julie Greenwood who retired last month after 27 years’ service.
In his new role, he will have overall management and responsibility for the company. He said: “I feel really fortunate to be taking on the role when the company is in an extremely good position. I will be building on the growth Julie started. She did an excellent job and I’m thankful to her for all the work she did.
“This is a company that rewards and promotes anyone with ability and ambition. Both Julie and I are a testament to that. There are no glass ceilings at Andel.
“I’m looking forward to the future and continuing to support the talent we have and to grow the business.”
In June 1992, the late Ian Pogson started the business from his garden shed, creating a leak detection system. In the early days, Pogson employed just a handful of staff, including Greenwood then Double, to support the development and manufacturing of his new Floodline system.
Andel recently won a £75,000 contract to install water leak detection systems on each floor of Tower 1 and Tower 2 in Marina Bay Financial Centre in Singapore.
Its client list includes HM The Queen, HM Government (including the NHS, Ministry of Defence, Home Office and DEFRA) and virtually every major western financial institution and telecoms provider. Andel exports worldwide, with other customers including The Pentagon and Hong Kong International Airport.
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Driver Hire, the Bradford-based transport and logistics recruitment company has announced two new appointments to its Training and Driver Risk Management team – Diane Toft and Steve Dethick.
Toft joins as Head of Service Delivery. She will oversee the delivery and support team for Driver CPC, DriveWise and dh Licence Check. She will also support the recruiter’s nationwide network’s provision of training products and manage Driver Hire’s Joint Approvals Unit for Periodic Training compliance.
She comes with a wealth of experience in both logistics and customer service. Her most recent position was as a Senior Transport Accounts Manager for a third-party logistics firm based in Bradford.
Dethick joins as Sales & Training Manager, a newly created role within Driver Hire’s Training and Driver Risk Management team. He will be working with clients new and old, helping them to develop their Driver Risk Management programmes. He will conduct audits for compliance, driver profiling, create new course content and make recommendations for appropriate driver training solutions.
His career has been spent in the fleet and road transport driver training sector.
John Keelan Edwards, Driver Hire’s Driver Risk Management & Technology Director, said: “Driver CPC training and driver risk management are growing and increasingly essential elements of the added value service we offer to all our clients.
“We’re delighted that we’ve attracted two high quality candidates, both with a wealth of industry experience, which will be of massive benefit both to us and to our customers.”
