This week's North West appointments

The real estate practice at the Manchester office of law firm Shoosmiths, has announced the appointment of a team of five expert lawyers.

New hires are two partners; Thomas Hall and Kellie Hatton, along with senior associate David Goy and solicitors Emma Cowell and Holly Bennett, all of whom have specialist real estate backgrounds of the Northern marketplace.

Thomas Hall has a particular focus on strategic land and providing advice on all legal aspects of taking sites through the development process. Thomas started his legal career at MacFarlanes before taking up a role at Irwin Mitchell.

Kellie Hatton is a development specialist with more than 15 years’ experience and has worked across a broad variety of real estate transactions. Prior to her time at Irwin Mitchell, Kellie held roles at Berwin Leighton Paisner and Denton Wilde Sapte.

Vaqas Farooq, Manchester office head, said: “I am delighted that we have attracted this talented team to our Manchester office. As a firm, one of the ways we differentiate ourselves is through our culture and commitment to our people and have recently embraced agile working for all colleagues at our new, purpose-built agile work-space at XYZ in Spinningfields, Manchester.

“We are excited about our innovative approach to agile which will enable us to work in a highly collaborative and flexible manner, and allow us to deliver a market-leading service and a first rate experience for an enviable list of clients across the North and the rest of the UK.”

Shoosmiths’ national real estate group is one of the largest in the UK, extending over eight offices and with a team comprising 62 partners and 310 people in total.

Tracey Hunter and Martin Bryant, Join the Dots

Join the Dots, the Manchester-based consumer insight company, has made a number of key appointments to further strengthen its client services team.

Tracey Hunter has been appointed as senior client director. Hunter is a seasoned marketing strategist having worked on both the client side (PZ Cussons, RHM and Co-op Food) and in advertising agency and brand consultancy roles (TBWA and Brand Chemistry).

Martin Bryant has been appointed as client director. Bryant brings with him ten years’ of client side experience, most recently at Yum! Restaurants International, where he worked for KFC.

Join the Dots underwent a management buyout in May this year led by managing director Quentin Ashby, who has also reported a strong start to the current financial year, with turnover of £5.8m for the first 6 months of 2017, an increase of 21% on the equivalent period last year.

Ashby commented: “These are exciting times and we are delighted to be once again reporting strong results.

“Key to our growth is the focus we place on continuing to develop our existing client relationships and we’re constantly looking at how we can best meet their needs.

“Attracting high calibre talent is key and we are delighted to welcome Tracey and Martin to the team.”

Join the Dots has 140 staff and boasts a multi-national portfolio of clients including GlaxoSmithKline, The Co-op, Diageo, British Airways, Unilever, BBC, Tesco and Nationwide.

Brabners

Commercial law firm Brabners has promoted 10 of its lawyers across its Manchester, Liverpool and Preston offices.

The appointments include two new promotions to partner – Andrew Rogers and Russel Forward.

Property litigation lawyer Andrew joined the firm’s Liverpool office in 2016 from DWF. He advises occupiers, landlords, investment funds, local authorities and offshore investors and has extensive experience of dealing with litigation in the High Court.

Russel specialises in real estate finance and restructuring. He advises banks, insolvency practitioners, institutional lenders and bridging finance providers. He qualified in 2004 and joined Brabners in 2014 to head up the real estate finance and restructuring team.

Meanwhile, the firm has also promoted two lawyers to senior associate – Hannah Carter in litigation and Joanne Radcliff in family.

The final six promotions are to associate – Alex Watson and Brendan McAleese in employment, Daniel Hayhurst, David Seddon and James Petts in corporate and Oliver Andrews in litigation.

Mark Brandwood, managing partner, said: “These promotions exemplify the strength in depth of the firm. Our focus is on developing the talent we have in-house and complementing that with the right external appointments.

“This has produced a team of commercially minded lawyers who offer sound legal advice that is tailored to the needs of individual clients and the sectors they operate in.”   Brabners has also made a number of recent senior appointments including sport and entertainment specialist Simon Taylor and private client practitioner Steven Appleton, who both joined the firm as partners.

Izzy Khan, Forward Role Recruitment

Forward Role Recruitment, the North West recruitment firm, has bolstered its marketing and digital recruitment offering in Yorkshire with the appointment of Izzy Khan.

Senior Consultant, Izzy joins the team from WeAreAdam and strengthens Forward Role’s position in the White Rose county and is also actively working on executive roles nationally.

The new appointment takes the size of the Forward Role team to 26.

Steve Thompson, Forward Role managing director, said: “Izzy has been very successful building a name for herself in the northern marketing recruitment space. We’re all looking forward to our Yorkshire based clients benefitting from another excellent recruiter joining our ranks.”

Izzy added: “Forward Role has a fantastic reputation, not just for the quality of its recruitment, but for being a brilliant place to work too.

“I can’t wait to get started and do my bit to push the business forward in Yorkshire.”

Forward Role has also grown its Technology division significantly in the last six months with Arif Ali, Rachel Davies and Grant Bodie joining the business.

Sophie Page and Will Vellios have also joined the Analytics and Agency divisions respectively.

Daniel Hill and Rosie Lulat, The Write Angle (TWA)

The Write Angle (TWA), the Lancashire-based marketing communications agency, has expanded its ranks with the appointment of two account executives.

Daniel Hill has four years’ in-house experience in several industries and joins the company from a Preston-based professional services firm.

He developed an interest in marketing whilst completing his Business Administration degree at the University of Central Lancashire. From this, he went on to complete the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Level 4 qualification.

Rosie Lulat graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 2014 with an MA in Publishing. She now has more than two years of industry experience, which she gained whilst working in an in-house PR and event management role at the University.

At TWA, the pair will be working across the mix of the firm’s B2B and B2C accounts.

Daniel said: “I’m really excited to be joining a dynamic and growing team that really goes above and beyond for their clients. TWA really stood out to me because of its culture and growth plans and I look forward to take on new challenges and experiences at the agency.”

Rosie added: “I’m thrilled to be joining the team and I can’t wait to get stuck in. I know that TWA will give me the experience needed to move ahead with my career.”

Julie Cheston, managing director at TWA, commented: “This is an exciting time for us. We’re delighted that Dan and Rosie are now part of the team and plan to recruit for further roles as our client portfolio continues to grow.”