Professionals: Lupton Fawcett Denison Till; P&A; BHP; Newtons

NICK Bell has joined Lupton Fawcett Denison Till, the Leeds, Sheffield and York-based commercial law firm, as head of banking and finance.

Mr Bell was previously a partner at Ward Hadaway and prior to that worked at Pinsent Masons. He has spent the last 15 years building his reputation within the banking and finance sector and specialties include corporate banking, asset finance, project finance (including PFI and infrastructure finance) and real estate finance.

The firm said the appointment marks an important strategic development as Mr Bell will lead the banking and finance team to diversify the firm’s banking offering across all three offices to institutional and corporate clients.

Richard Marshall, managing director, said: “Having known of Nick for a good many years, it is a pleasure to finally welcome him into the fold. I am absolutely confident that he will be a marvellous leader of the Banking and Finance team. Nick will focus on developing the team and introducing new streams of corporate banking business for the firm.”

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JEREMY Bennett has joined The P&A Partnership as a director.

With a background in law, Mr Bennett has more than 20 years’ experience in banking and finance, restructuring and insolvency and corporate recovery.

He trained and qualified at Squire Sanders and was head of finance law for North East before leaving in 2002 to set up his own law firm, JB Law, specialising in banking, corporate finance and restructuring/insolvency. In 2012 he sold his practice to Cobbetts.

Mr Bennett is one of the few practising dual qualified lawyer/insolvency practitioners in the county and is also acknowledged for his advisory work in the invoice discounting, factoring and asset backed lending (ABL) market. In 2013 he joined Duff & Phelps as head of the firm’s new Leeds office.

During his career he has gained extensive experience advising banks and asset-based lenders, focusing on restructurings, workouts and turnaround situations. He has particular expertise in advising management teams and their finances and his sector experience includes legal and professional services firms, manufacturing, construction, recruitment and haulage.

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BHP has recruited the former managing director of Andrew Page to its consulting team.

Mark Roberts has joined the team, led by partner David Mitchell, which works with ambitious businesses providing advice on strategy, operations, human capital and customer experience.

Mr Roberts’ last full time role was as managing director at Andrew Page, where he oversaw the transition of the business from family to private equity ownership.

Prior to this he ran a UK business division of Bosch. More recently, through his own business, he has supported a number of companies with strategic reviews, identification and development of new business opportunities, enhancement of leadership skills and ongoing management mentoring.

Mr Mitchell said: “Mark has a history of helping large multi-site businesses to develop and grow and is a perfect fit for our consulting practice. Over the last 15 years he has worked in a private equity backed environment, a family owned business and prior to this for a large multi-national in a senior role.”

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A FAMILY lawyer from one of the country’s best-known specialist firms has joined Newtons Solicitors to top another year of continuing expansion.

Rachel Baul, a former partner at Stowe Family Law in Harrogate, will work out of all nine offices in the Newtons Solicitors network which has its head office in Knaresborough and has local offices in Teesside, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.

Ms Baul qualified as a lawyer in 1997 and specialised in family law from 1999. She joined Stowe Family Law in 2004 and covered all aspects of divorce and matrimonial finance as well as pre and post-nuptial contracts and separation agreements.

Newtons Solicitors, founded by Chris Newton and his wife, Sarah, who is also a director, has offices in Harrogate, Ripon, York, Stokesley, Ilkley, Richmond and Darlington.