Announcing 18 promotions across the firm

We are delighted to announce 18 promotions across a variety of teams and locations, effective from 1 November 2024, with one person to partner, six people to legal director, and 10 people to associate.

Based in Birmingham, Jack Kelly – who has more than 10 years’ experience in acting for a range of residential property developers, landowners and promoters specialising in the promotion, acquisition and disposal of land – has been promoted to partner.

New legal directors include Birmingham-based Meriel O’Loughlin, Nottingham-based Hannah Awcock and Rebecca Jones-Fox, Leicester-based Emma Ali and Alex Ryan and Solihull-based Elaine Hart.

• Commercial property and development expert, Meriel O’Loughlin acts for commercial occupiers and landlords in the industrial and education sectors as well as commercial developers. She also has experience in acting for national banks, undertaking the required property due diligence and preparing bespoke security packages for transactions.
• Hannah Awcock advises on all aspects of commercial property transactions, and specialises in development finance for banks and other funders.  She has particular expertise in dealing with unregistered land.
• Rebecca Fox-Jones works in the real estate and energy team with a focus on high volume transactions for utilities clients. Rebecca has experience working with the country’s largest utility network operators.
• Commercial property and development expert Emma Ali is involved in the acquisition and disposal of land and property, the grant and renewal of commercial leases, residential lease extensions, and other property matters. Emma also advises housing associations on property law matters.
• An expert in dispute resolution, Alex Ryan deals with a wide variety of complex and high value disputes, often in the High Court, including those relating to breach of contract as well as corporate disputes, including breach of warranty and shareholder disputes. He also handles healthcare disputes, particularly involving the CQC, and contentious procurement matters.
• Supporting the individual, Elaine Hart advises on estate planning, probate matters and various trust structures. Elaine also helps clients with Powers of Attorney and deputy’s accounts.

Promoted to associate level is Rob Norris, Selica Khan, Paul McMaster, Tom Riley and Christopher Neale in Birmingham; Charley McEvoy in Leicester, Natalie Thorpe and Josh Morley in Nottingham, Calum Hanrahan in Lincoln; and Deanna Phillips-Mills and Katrina Gibson in Stratford.

• Rob Norris is a family law expert, with expertise in both financial remedy and children matters.
• Selica Khan specialises in property litigation, advising on complex land disputes, involving restrictive covenants, easements, and boundary issues, acting for commercial developers and landowners. She also has extensive experience in statutory lease renewals, managing retail leasehold portfolios, break notices, dilapidations claims, service charge disputes, and rent arrears management.
• Supporting individuals, Paul McMaster is an expert in estate planning, including wills, life-time trusts and Powers of Attorney. Paul also works on more technical, cross-disciplinary instructions including assisting with corporate restructures involving trust structures and education clients with linked charities.
• Tom Riley is an expert in restructuring and insolvency, who advises companies, insolvency practitioners, directors, and financiers on a wide range of high-value and complex litigation or transactional matters.
• Also in the restructuring and insolvency team, Christopher Neale acts for various stakeholders, including enders, individuals, corporate entities and insolvency practitioners, and regularly advises clients on a wide range of transactional and complex contentious insolvency matters.
• Charley McEvoy is an expert in the corporate team supporting clients with corporate disposals, acquisitions and restructures.
• In the dispute resolution team, Natalie Thorpe specialises in resolving complex business disputes, with a particular focus on contract claims. Natalie also deals with a range of other commercial disputes including director and shareholder disputes, claims for rectification and negligence claims.
• Legal planning associate Josh Morley advises local authorities, developers and individuals on both contentious and non-contentious planning matters. Josh covers all aspects of the planning process including negotiating planning obligations, providing strategic planning advice and leading in judicial/statutory reviews and planning appeals.
• Immigration specialist Calum Hanrahan works with UK businesses supporting international recruitment and immigration compliance as well as working with individuals and their families on private visa applications.
• Family law specialist Deanna Phillips-Mills specialises in divorce, child agreements and complex financial matters.
• Katrina Gibson has operational responsibility across contracts within the debt and asset recovery team, including onboarding, performance tracking and service levels.

Victoria Tester, managing director, said: “I am thrilled to see so many of our existing and emerging leaders promoted across such a broad range of teams and office hubs. Developing home-grown talent is hugely important, we know that our investments in training and coaching pay back dividends in the quality of service our people provide to our clients and in the way they pay it forward in supporting their colleagues who are just starting their careers with us.

“Congratulations to all who have taken this significant step in their careers.”