This week's Yorkshire appointments

Real estate lawyer Eve Gregory has joined Clarion’s property team as a legal director and the firm has also appointed Marcus Watson as an associate.

With almost 25 years’ experience in private practice, including 17 years as a partner, first at Eversheds in Leeds and then at DAC Beachcroft, Eve has knowledge of advising on a wide range of property development, planning and construction matters in both the public and the private sectors.

She has particular expertise in commercial and residential development, acting for clients in the property and retail sectors in the North and across the UK.

Marcus qualified in 2015 and since then he has worked in the property teams at Gordons and at DAC Beachcroft. He has experience of advising across a wide range of commercial property matters.

Martin Grange, partner and head of Clarion’s property practice, commented: “With the commercial property market in Yorkshire remaining buoyant, we are seeing a continuing need to grow the team in response to our expanding workload.

“Given her extensive career in property, Eve will provide further strength in depth, which, together with Marcus’ appointment, will also boost the team.”

Eve said: “My approach has always been to put myself in my client’s shoes and to work as a trusted adviser, delivering high quality legal advice which is straightforward and business-focused.

“To find a firm which genuinely embraces this ethos is very refreshing and I’m excited to be joining such a dynamic firm.”

Marcus added: “This is a great opportunity to learn from experienced colleagues and be part of one of the most renowned property teams in the region.

“As ever, my focus will be on taking a commercial and sensible approach to transactions to ensure the client gets the best result.”

Gail Storr, Beverley Scholefield and Tom Iles, JLL

Property consultant JLL has promoted three members of staff in its Leeds office.

Tom Iles has been promoted to the role of senior surveyor, Beverley Scholefield to surveyor and Gail Storr has been made a surveying executive.

All three work in JLL’s property and asset management team in Leeds overseeing commercial property assets on behalf of pension funds and investment and property companies.

The team is currently responsible for over nearly 200 properties and 1,300 tenants across Yorkshire and the North East.

Paul Curson, head of JLL’s Property and Asset Management team in Leeds, said: “I would like to congratulate all three for consistently going above and beyond for our clients.

“These well-deserved promotions underline JLL’s ongoing commitment to develop and retain the best people within our business.”

JLL’s Leeds office has 120 members of staff advising developers, investors and occupiers on all aspects of property including offices, retail and leisure, industrial and logistics, residential, healthcare, planning, property management, building consultancy, project management and valuation.

Anne Robertson, Ison Harrison

A clinical negligence lawyer has joined the Leeds office of Ison Harrison.

Anne Robertson joins the firm from DAC Beachcroft LLP where she defended clinical negligence claims. Prior to this she acted for claimants at firms in Doncaster, Huddersfield and Leeds.

Anne has many years’ experience as a clinical negligence solicitor after qualifying in 2007. Before studying law, Anne worked for ten years as a nurse in Sheffield, specialising in cardiothoracic and general surgery, and anaesthetics.

In her new role at Ison Harrison in Leeds, Anne will be responsible for a wide variety of clinical negligence cases resulting from nursing, surgical, clinician or GP neglect. Anne specialises in cases involving fatalities.

Ison Harrison’s clinical negligence team is officially recognised as specialist in Erb’s Palsy cases and the team’s head of clinical negligence, James Thompson is the sole Erb’s Palsy Group recommended solicitor in the North.

James Thompson said: “Ison Harrison is committed to recruiting the best legal professionals, ensuring our clients have the greatest possible access to legal expertise and we’re thrilled to welcome Anne to the team.

“Across our regional network of 12 offices, Ison Harrison has built a strong reputation for providing the best legal advice whilst empathising with the emotional difficulties and situations that clients find themselves in. Anne will be a major asset in providing an even more thorough clinical negligence offering.”

LightStart

A Leeds-based tech and design house has appointed two new employees and three contractors.

LightStart, formed in 2016 by Simon Edwards and Dan Akers, builds digital products including mobile apps, web apps and the underlying platforms that drive them.

Nicolle Moore and Andrew Morgan have been employed to grow the company’s core team to seven, alongside an additional three contractors.

Having recently graduated from the University of Leeds with a master’s in management consulting, Nicolle Moore joins as junior business analyst. Using her stakeholder management skill, she helps facilitate analysis workshops, capturing the requirements of LightStarts’ clients who approach the business with an idea in order to progress it to the next phase of design and development.

Andrew Morgan has been appointed as principal developer, an expert full stack .net developer of eight years specialising in large scale web applications.

Geoff Webber-Cross, Chris Ainsley and John Carroll have also joined the development team as project-based contractors, bringing their different skill sets to the live projects in production.

Dan Akers, co-founder of LightStart, commented: “Simon and I are really proud that in less than two years LightStart has experienced rapid growth. This is testament to our approach to do things a little differently and create a digital design house, rather than a traditional agency.

“Furthermore, we have been able to source some of the local area’s leading talent by adhering to our strong values which dictate that employees enjoy their work over a four-day working week for a full-time salary.”

David Lewis (pictured) and Kieran Jones, Weightmans

National law firm Weightmans has announced a series of new appointments as senior partner and director of client relations Dan Cutts retires on 30th April.

This dual role will be divided, with David Lewis elected senior partner and Kieran Jones appointed to the director of client relations role.

David, currently head of Weightmans’ regulatory services unit and the firm’s Leeds office and Kieran, Weightmans’ head of insurance, will formally begin their new roles on 1st May 2018.

As the new senior partner, David Lewis will work closely with John Schorah and the wider leadership team to continue to build and develop the business.

After joining Weightmans as an articled clerk in 1985, David moved through the ranks to become Partner in 1992. He is best known for his work defending organisations and individuals facing investigation and prosecution for regulatory offences, founding the firm’s dedicated regulatory services unit in 2004.

Kieran, who acts for insurers, public authorities and international commercial organisations, in his current role is heavily involved in managing relationships with the firms largest clients.

As the new director of client relations, a focus for him will be to ensure Weightmans delivers exceptional results for all its clients – driving a proactive, intuitive approach to client care.

John Schorah, managing partner at Weightmans, said: “Dan is a truly a part of the Weightmans DNA and has made an immeasurable contribution to the business in his time with us. I would like to thank him for his truly outstanding expertise, professionalism and sense of dedication to the firm and its success.

“He has been a massive asset to the firm over the years and will be sorely missed, but it is a pleasure to welcome David and Kieran into his two roles in the coming weeks.

“They are great ambassadors for the firm, well known in the legal industry and will provide great support and direction in the coming years as we continue to work hard to strengthen our position as one of the UK’s leading law firms.”

Simon Gilmour, Harper James Solicitors

Harper James Solicitors, the Sheffield-headquartered commercial law firm, has further bolstered its employment law team with the appointment of partner Simon Gilmour.

The announcement sees Gilmour join from Harrison Clark Rickerbys where he was a partner and head of employment in their Worcester office.

He brings with him more than 20 years’ experience working on contentious and non-contentious employment matters, with particular expertise advising on M&As and TUPE, as well as supporting internal HR departments on matters including project managing and delivering restructure exercises and change management programmes.

Toby Harper, the firm’s CEO and corporate solicitor, said: “Simon is a well-respected and highly skilled lawyer and his appointment demonstrates the high-quality recruitment that we at Harper James are undertaking in order to deliver affordable, best-in-class legal services and we’re excited to have him on-board.

“We are experiencing a very busy period with new clients and instructions, which is reflected by the growth of the firm, and we have no doubt that Simon will be an excellent asset for us, and in turn for our clients.”

With a career spanning more than two decades - including 14 years as a partner in Midlands-based firms, including Shakespeares and SGH Martineau - Simon has acted on behalf of blue-chip clients and global organisations spanning a myriad of sectors.

Ken Holford, Pneumatic Components (PCL)

Pneumatic Components (PCL), which designs, manufactures and distributes pneumatic and tyre inflation systems, has announced the appointment of Ken Holford to the newly-created role of UK key account manager.

Holford will be the main point of contact for the established and future development of PCL’s account base.

He brings a wealth of experience to the role, having held sales positions spanning industrial consumables, capital equipment and tooling within the automotive and engineering sectors.

At PCL, he is tasked with implementing commercial sales strategies across the UK and specific overseas areas as well as assisting business growth via wholesale and retail activity.

Peter McCall, sales director at PCL, said: “To bring someone onboard with Ken’s breadth of experience and such a deep understanding of our markets, shows we are investing in the right people to grow our business.

“We have ambitious plans and look forward to seeing the professional service and strong results Ken will bring that will help to further enhance our market-leading position.”

Holford added: “The position at PCL provides me with a dynamic role in an equally forward-thinking company.

“PCL has a desire to design, build and bring to market truly innovative tyre inflation and compressed air products, and I look forward to developing existing accounts through organic growth while building a strong new business pipeline.”

Graeme Richardson, Reed Boardall

Reed Boardall, the temperature controlled storage and distribution business, has appointed Graeme Richardson as managing director of its transport division.

With expertise in operations management, logistics and supply chain management, Graeme joins from National Holidays Ltd where he was a director.

Previously, he spent five years with Tesco in a variety of roles including as area distribution manager for the North and as primary manager – national rail operations. Prior to that, Graeme was regional planning manager with Eddie Stobart for almost five years.

In his new role with Reed Boardall, Graeme will be seeking to grow the business by winning new customer contracts as well as looking for further operational improvements and efficiencies.

Marcus Boardall, deputy chief executive, said: “With his strong track record in transport and experience of working within the retail sector, Graeme will bring fresh insight to our transport operation.

“He will be focussing on finding new opportunities and helping us to be even better at what we do.

“Working alongside Andrew Baldwin, managing director of our cold storage division, we have a great team in place to take the business forward.”

Graeme added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for me to move back into transport and to work for one of the leading refrigerated logistics companies in the UK. I’m really looking forward to being part of a family business where I can make a real difference.

“Reed Boardall offers a unique proposition. With 25 years of experience behind it, it has evolved to meet customers’ changing needs and provide a reliable, integrated cold storage and transport solution.

“Despite turbulence in the sector, it has remained steady and I believe we have a great opportunity to build on our position of strength.”