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Durham law firm Swinburne Maddison LLP has made two partner promotions following a successful year.

Gillian Moir and Chris Ross, who both joined the firm’s commercial property team in 2014, have been promoted from managing associate level and provide even more breadth at the top of the department’s management structure.

Ms Moir was part of the team responsible for completing more than £75m of CBILS and RLS transactions on behalf of Atom Bank and has been recognised as a Rising Star for the last four years in The Legal 500. Mr Ross was instrumental in supporting the firm’s appointment to the general property and conveyancing legal panel for Karbon Homes and Gentoo Group following a successful tendering process last year.

The company has also made five more appointments, including Phoebe Gogarty, who will be advising clients on employment law, Daniel Peacock as a new member of the dispute resolution team, new residential property team members Kate Cunniff and Laura Duff. Amy Fletcher joins as an associate solicitor within the private client team.

Managing partner Jonathan Moreland, said: “We reorganised our senior management team two years ago with a view to accelerating our growth plans to take advantage of opportunities arising following the pandemic. I think it’s fair to say the high-profile nature of much of our work and our strong performance has been turning heads for some time now and the firm continues on an upward trajectory. Indeed, we are about to commence the rollout of a new three-year strategic plan.”

Regional housebuilder Banks Homes has strengthened its senior team with the appointment of David Storey as its new head of commercial. Mr Storey brings more than 12 years’ experience in the North East property industry to his new role, which involves appraising land, managing budgets and closing contracts around large-scale residential development sites. He began his career as a quantity surveyor before working his way up through the ranks with a well-known regional housebuilder in a number of commercial roles.

He said: “I’d reached the stage of my career where I wanted to take on more responsibility and joining Banks Homes gives me the opportunity to do just that. My new role allows me to get involved with every aspect of a development’s progression from initial site identification and technical design work right through to customer care and completion, and with the business still being pretty new, there’s every chance for me to apply my experience in shaping how we operate.

“The enthusiasm with the wider Banks business for the housebuilding concept was very clear from our first conversation and we’re in a great position to build another successful, sustainable property business across the North East and Yorkshire.”