Law firm Hill Dickinson has expanded its Newcastle office with the appointment of a new corporate team, led by partner Tom Pollard. Joining Mr Pollard are legal director Liam Stubbs and senior associate Nicole Axon, all three having previously worked as a team at Ward Hadaway.
Mr Pollard brings over 17 years of experience advising clients on the full range of corporate work, in particular domestic and cross-border transactions.
Mr Pollard said: “Having lived in the North East for over 20 years, I’m thrilled to be leading the North East regional corporate team at a Ƶ top 50 firm that’s not only deeply rooted in key locations across the Ƶ but is also a significant player with a strong international presence. There is huge potential for Hill Dickinson in the North East corporate market, so I’m looking forward to working alongside the firm’s highly regarded national corporate team and contributing to the growth of our corporate offering in the region, as well as supporting the growth of a full-service offering in Newcastle, in close collaboration with the wider Newcastle office.”
Coleman James, a specialist recruiter in construction, rail, and facilities management, has appointed experienced business consultant Paul Metcalfe as non-executive director. Mr Metcalfe joins the board alongside managing director Andrew Mackay, operations director Sandra Kennedy, and outsourced finance director Dan Cooper of Ryecroft Glenton. Director Beth Cullen has also recently joined the board.
Mr Metcalfe has extensive experience in scaling and selling recruitment businesses, having previously led AndersElite to a £100m turnover and founded Fusion People, which achieved a global turnover of £150m. Since 2017, he has helped the growth of several other recruitment businesses in a consultancy capacity.
He said: “My passion is to support recruitment businesses in their growth and success. Andrew and I share similar career paths, having both worked for AndersElite and Hill McGlynn in Construction recruitment before founding our respective businesses. We both strive to foster high-performance cultures, and I see tremendous ambition within the Coleman James team. Aligning this ambition with construction, rail, and facilities management opportunities is an exciting challenge.”
Independent accountancy and business advisory firm Clive Owen LLP has strengthened its corporate finance division.
The firm has appointed Joe Vera-Sanso as corporate finance executive, continuing his development at the firm. Mr Vera-Sanso began his career in business development for a national charity and moved internally into the finance function at the charity, but he missed the client-facing aspect of his previous business development role, and saw an opportunity to develop his skills further at Clive Owen LLP, joining the firm’s grants team in 2023.
Following a successful period in grants, he has moved into corporate finance, bringing to the role a commercially focused skillset.
He said: “We are capitalising on a rising tide of transactions and I’m looking forward to delivering advice and services to our large range of clients, both sectorally and geographically.”
Law firm Hay & Kilner has appointed Leigh Ferguson as partner in the growing commercial litigation and dispute resolution team.
Based at The Lumen in Newcastle’s Helix, Ms Ferguson will focus on growing the firm’s intellectual property and fraud offering along with insolvency and restructuring. She joins from the Newcastle office of a national legal firm and has a broad range of experience across all aspects of commercial litigation and dispute resolution as well as insolvency claims.
Ms Ferguson is a survivor of a life changing spinal cord injury, which happened in 2020, and she recently completed the WheelPower National Spinal Cord Injury games at Stoke Mandeville, spreading positivity that disability is not a barrier or a limitation to achieving your own personal goals and aspirations. She regularly speaks about resilience and adapting to new challenges both at home and in the workplace.
She said: “I was attracted to Hay & Kilner given the firm’s independence coupled with being one of the longest established North East firms. The values of the firm align with my core values: the firm has strong ambitions for growth but at the centre of its growth is its people and clients.”
Accountancy and business advisory firm Johnston Carmichael has strengthened its tax offering in the North East with a series of senior tax appointments. Will Hamilton, Rebecca McColl and Zita Duggan have joined the Newcastle office to further strengthen its specialist tax services, bringing decades of combined experience across corporate tax, innovation tax incentives, and R&D advisory support.
Mr Hamilton joins as a senior manager, bringing 24 years’ experience in corporate tax compliance and strategic planning. Ms McColl, also a senior manager, brings expertise in R&D and innovation tax reliefs, while Ms Duggan, appointed as manager, specialises in employee share schemes and tax-efficient remuneration structures.
Alex Nicholson, partner and head of VAT and indirect tax, said: “From day one, our ambition in Newcastle has been to combine technical expertise with a local, hands-on approach to client service. In under two years, we’ve built a fantastic team, and the arrival of Will, Rebecca and Zita marks another exciting step forward.”
North East engineers RWO have promoted Sam Innes to the board as executive director, overseeing the management and growth of its residential structures engineering operations. Working alongside the senior management team at Newcastle-based firm, he will cover new business development, key account management, team recruitment and competency training, along with contributing to planned strategic growth.
He brings 15 years of experience and expertise in structural engineering and project management to the role as the firm looks to boost turnover to £4m in FY2026 across its Newcastle, Leeds, Stokesley and London offices.
Mr Innes said: “I am very proud to be stepping into this role and look forward to taking a more hands-on role at the highest level at RWO as we look to develop our activities further and work on more exciting projects with the continued support of our highly talented team in the North East and Yorkshire.”
