Appointments: Squire Sanders; Raworths; Irwin Mitchell; Metis Law

SQUIRE Sanders has announced that litigation lawyer Russell Kelsall has been promoted to partner.

Kelsall is an experienced lawyer with a diverse practice focused on financial services litigation, financial services regulatory and compulsory purchase compensation litigation.  He has particular expertise is in financial disputes, especially consumer credit disputes, asset finance disputes – often involving motor vehicles, plant and machinery – and sale and supply of goods.

John Alderton, managing partner of Squire Sanders Leeds office, said: “I would like to congratulate Russell on achieving this well-deserved promotion to partner.  Russell is an exceptionally talented lawyer who has had a major impact on the growth and development of the Leeds office and the firm’s services in litigation and financial services regulation.  His promotion is testament to the significant contribution he has made, and we have no doubt that our clients will continue to reap the rewards of his expertise.”

Kelsall said: “My promotion comes at a very busy time, with a whole host of financial services and consumer law changes taking place in the UK during the course of the next 18 months.  This begins with the regulation of consumer credit transferring from the Office of Fair Trading to the Financial Conduct Authority in April (and the introduction of a new rulebook); the forthcoming changes in distance selling and off-premises selling; changes in consumer sales law and the proposed widening of the scope of consumer protection.  This is a specialist and growing area of law and I am looking forward to continuing to develop our practice and support clients of the firm through a myriad of changes that will have real impact on their businesses.”

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RAWORTHS has appointed private client lawyer Rachel Tunnicliffe to head up its Trusts, Wills and Probate department.

Tunnicliffe moves to the Harrogate law firm firm after holding partnership positions at two nationally recognised Leeds law firms.

She specialises in providing tax and succession planning advice to high net worth individuals and family business owners, as well as clients with international assets. She provides advice to trustees of valuable trusts as well as acting as a professional trustee herself for various family trusts.

She said: “For me, it was important to find a law firm which matched my own values and goals whilst providing me with a new challenge. Raworths has a code of ethics which recognises the importance of clients and staff and matches that with an involvement in the community. There is an understanding that people should be treated with fairness and integrity whilst not comprising the commercial importance of our work.”

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IRWIN Mitchell has added to the litigation expertise in its Sheffield office with the appointment of solicitor Linda Roberts.
 
Arriving at the firm from Heatons in Manchester, Roberts has experience in a broad range of commercial litigation issues with particular expertise in property areas including landlord and tenant disputes, dilapidations, breach of covenants and possession claims.

Her appointment also comes not long after the team increased its expertise with the appointment of property litigation specialist Lisa Stratford from Weightmans’ Manchester office.
 
Roberts said: “I’m very excited to be part of the top-ranking litigation practice. The profile and reputation of Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services side has grown significantly in the past few years and I am looking forward to helping to push this forward further.”

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METIS Law has appointed commercial litigation partner Stephen Inglis to the team.

Metis Law’s managing partner, Paul Cooper, said: “What Stephen brings is a proven track record of securing excellent results for his clients. He is a first class litigation lawyer who is recognised as such by the leading law directories. We’ve wanted him on board for some time and I’m really delighted that he has now joined us.”

The law firm is based in Leeds.

Inglis said: “Metis Law provides me with an ideal platform to provide quality, strategic and commercial legal advice to my clients in a way that doesn’t break the bank.
 
“I don’t believe that bigger firms are always better for clients. There is a real
need in the North for a specialist boutique law firm like Metis Law which is able to
reflect the commercial and entrepreneurial flair of clients, particularly at this stage of our economic cycle.”