People: Holden Smith; Squire Patton Boggs; Garbutt+Elliott; and more

Law firm Holden Smith has appointed Ben Moore as head of private client services covering Halifax and Leeds.

His appointment marks further growth for Holden Smith’s private client offering, and he joins Helen Notter, the firm’s head of private client services in Huddersfield.

James Smith, co-founder and director at Holden Smith, said: “We’ve seen around a 45% increase in new instructions for private client services in the last 12 months, which includes areas such as wills and probate, powers of attorney, business succession planning and personal tax planning, over the past year or so.

“I’m delighted to welcome Ben to the team. His experience will be invaluable in driving the development of our private client services, from the perspective of both the firm and its clients.”

Moore said: “The pandemic has given people more time to think about the future and many have realised the importance of safeguarding their wealth and planning for the years ahead.

“By taking time to understand our clients’ financial and family circumstances, we can offer clear, practical advice to safeguard, develop and ultimately pass on their wealth with complete peace of mind.

“I’m very pleased to be joining the team at Holden Smith to help grow the firm’s private client offering across our Halifax and Leeds offices.”

Holden Smith was established in 2019 by James Smith, David Bancroft and Jamie Megson. The firm now employs 48 people with offices in Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds.

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Squire Patton Boggs has confirmed the promotion of two senior lawyers based in its Leeds office to the partnership.

Abduss Patel (Real Estate) and Mae Salem (Corporate) comprise this year’s Leeds-based cohort of newly promoted partners, part of a global promotional round in which a total of 23 lawyers have been promoted as partners within the firm.

Patel’s expertise covers the full range of commercial real estate matters, particularly investments, roadside developments and hospitality and leisure.

He acts for corporate occupiers within the retail and hospitality sectors, as well as overseas high net worth individuals and investment trust funds.

Salem has considerable experience in advising on private company acquisitions and disposals, in particular in the private equity space.

Most recently, she advised Endless on its investment in Amscan International and advised the shareholders of the IDHL Group on their sale to Bridgepoint Development Capital.

John Alderton, managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs in Leeds, said: “I would like to congratulate Abduss and Mae on their well-deserved promotions.

“Abduss and Mae are exceptionally talented lawyers who have established a name for themselves in the Yorkshire market and indeed wider afield.

“They have played a major role in the success of this office and the growth of our Real Estate and Corporate practices, and their promotions underline the scale of ambition we share for growing our business in Yorkshire and providing the highest-quality service to our clients.”

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Chris Blackburn

Leeds and York accountancy, advisory and audit firm Garbutt+Elliott has announced two senior promotions as part of the firm’s continued investment in its future growth.

Chris Blackburn has been promoted to a director of the Accounts team and James Fry, director of the Real Time Accounting team, IntelliG+Ence.

These promotions follow a number of key appointments at Garbutt+Elliott over the last six months, taking the team to over 200 staff, including 15 partners, offering a wide range of quality services for individuals and businesses.

James Fry

Russell Turner, managing partner, said: “Whilst the current economic climate is incredibly challenging, it’s so important that we continue to invest in our people so they can deliver the best service possible to our clients.

“The foundation for every successful business is to have a team of brilliant people who are passionate about what they do and what they stand for.

“Congratulations to Chris and James whose promotions are thoroughly well deserved and reflect the exceptional contribution they make to Garbutt+Elliott and their clients.”

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Leeds and London-based digital healthcare specialist, Mindwave Ventures, has recruited a number of specialists across the business to support its growth objectives for 2021.

Founded by Kumar Jacob in 2014, Mindwave was born out of the NIHR Maudsley BioMedical Research Centre (BRC) at the Maudsley Hospital.

Over the last six years, the business has substantially grown from two people to an international complement of 43, including a design and full-stack development team.

The business has recruited five new employees in the UK team over the last three months, including most recently Leeds-based Chelsea Almond, who joined as sales administrator in January.

She has a wealth of experience in the healthcare industry from her previous role as marketing and communications lead at One Medical Group.

Her main role will focus on supporting new business opportunities and client management.

Diana Pulikoden has also recently joined the company as a project manager, Vijitharan Nageswaran as project support, Mark Irlam joins the design team, and Leah Harvie has taken on the role of finance assistant.

Jacobs, founder of the business, said: “We are thrilled to have such a talented set of people join the Mindwave family.

“With a number of new projects in the pipeline from new and existing partners, our key focus for recruitment has been to find the best talent in the digital health sector.

“Last year highlighted the importance of digital health applications, so we look forward to continuing to support the NHS and our partners to provide the best quality service to their patients.”

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