A West Midlands law firm has appointed a new managing partner.
Wright Hassall, which is based in Leamington Spa, has promoted Phil Wilding to the post, taking over from Sarah Perry who has performed the role for six years but is now stepping down from the firm.
She has been with Wright Hassall for 32 years and rose from trainee to be one of the first female managing partners of a major law firm.
Mr Wildling has been with the practice for ten years as a partner and head of debt collection.
For the past two years, he has overseen the employment, commercial, litigation, business immigration, private client, debt recovery, matrimonial and corporate teams.
Birmingham BusinessLive Awards 2022
The Birmingham BusinessLive Awards in association with Birmingham Post 2022
The annual ceremony will celebrate the city's finest businesses, individuals and organisations and crown our overall Company of the Year -
The deadline for submissions is Monday January 17 and the ceremony will be held at the ICC in Birmingham on Friday March 18.
If you have any questions or to enquire about sponsorship please email paige.jackson@reachplc.com and follow the hashtag #BBLA for updates on social media.
He said: "I would like to put on record Wright Hassall's gratitude to Sarah for her service over such a long period of time. To have risen from trainee to become managing partner is a huge achievement and a testament to her abilities and determination.
"I am immensely proud to have been asked to take on the role at what is such a crucial time. We are celebrating our 175th anniversary, have a hugely talented team and are extremely well placed to grow the business."
Most Read
Peter Lowe will become senior partner while Nick Abell will continue in his role as chairman.
In addition, Wright Hassall has appointed James Lowe as a partner in the commercial litigation team, specialising in regulatory law, and Ethan Desai as legal director in the agriculture team, specialising in non-contentious property matters for agricultural and rural landowners and tenants.
Mr Lowe joins from George Green and Mr Desai was most recently with Furley Page in Kent.
In other appointments news, specialist property debt collection firm Realty Law has announced the expansion of its Birmingham with the appointment of eight new staff.
The new hires are led by senior residential property litigator Liz Rowen, a former partner of law firm Keebles, that was recently acquired by Knights.
She is joined by former Knights colleagues, Evie Britton, Kirsty Elliott, Cherice St Louis, Abby France and Sam Cooper, as well as two new administration assistants.
Realty Law recently announced the appointment of experienced property litigator Darren Clegg to lead the commercial property debt collection practice and develop its portfolio of regional and national clients.
Don’t miss
Director Gregory Emms said: "The recruitment of Liz Rowen and her team will significantly improve Realty's offering to new and existing clients. All of us look forward to working with them."
Sign up for your free West Midlands newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn
Email newsletters
BusinessLive is your home for business news from across the West Midlands including Birmingham, the Black Country, Solihull, Coventry and Staffordshire.
Click through here to sign up for our email newsletter and also view the broad range of other bulletins we offer including weekly sector-specific updates.
We will also send out 'Breaking News' emails for any stories which must be seen right away.
For all the latest stories, views and polls, follow our
Law firm Irwin Mitchell has boosted its planning and environment team in Birmingham with the hire of Tracy Lovejoy as senior associate.
She has joined from Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors in Shropshire where she worked for nearly three years as an associate planning lawyer and head of the planning department.
She has experience of enforcement, injunctions and judicial reviews and has advised on various areas including town and village greens, commons land and tree preservation orders.
Birmingham mid-market corporate advisory firm Orbis Partners has made a double promotion.
Tom McCarthy is a new partner while Peter Waplington has stepped up to director.
They follow the recent hire of Harps Dhami who has joined to co-ordinate cross border opportunities within Clairfield International, its global investment bank partner.
Digital marketing agency Pink Leopard has appointed a new head of client services and operations.
Liv Bevan is the latest addition to the Birmingham-based firm's senior leadership team and will be responsible for looking at the way in which the agency can best support, understand, and add value to its clients.
She brings more than 17 years of experience to the post, having performed a mixture of client-facing roles.
Black Country law firm Higgs has added a further six members of staff to the business.
They are senior associates Richard Ferguson (business services) and Jonathan Moss (dispute resolution), legal services secretaries Tammy Walker and Victoria Lawlor, conveyancing executive Sam McHugo and client services assistant Michelle Everall.
Managing partner Nick Taylor said: "This has been a busy year for Higgs during which we have expanded the expertise and services offered across our various teams.
"I would like to extend a big welcome to these six new recruits."
Mid-market corporate finance house Clearwater International has appointed Sarah Taylor as a partner in its Birmingham office.
She joins from PwC with and has more than 24 years of corporate finance experience, spending the last five years building and leading a corporate finance team at PwC in the Midlands.
The appointment supports the growth of the company's international business services team.