We announce 24 promotions

National law firm for life and business Shakespeare Martineau, has announced 24 promotions across a variety of teams.

Effective 1 May 2023, the firm has promoted two people to equity membership as well as seven to partner.

Becoming an equity member in Ampa are Shakespeare Martineau partners Heledd Wyn and Sandeep Leighs.

Heledd is a private client expert and specialist in long term care and estate planning at the firm’s Bristol hub. Meanwhile, Sandeep is an employment specialist within the firm’s Leicester hub, who was named a rising star in the 2022 Legal 500.

New partners at Shakespeare Martineau include:

Esther Maxwell in employment, who specialises in supporting the education sector and leads the schools practice at the firm.

Jennie Wheildon, has more than 10 years’ experience in the agriculture sector, assisting farming clients with a variety of property matters.

Jonathan Fear, has been with the firm for more than 30 years, working on strategic land acquisitions and complex development projects.

In intellectual property, with a special focus on patents, confidential information, databases and copyright, Kerry Russell.

Kylie Wesson, who spent the first seven years of her career working for local government and now specialises in build to rent developments and local authority planning work.

Lucy Haynes, who is a specialist in residential development, acting for housebuilders, promoters and landowners on a range of matters from instant land to strategic land transactions.

And finally, supporting individuals with all aspects of private client work including inheritance tax planning, asset protection and estate planning is newly-promoted partner Sarah Brack.

Promoted to legal director within the Shakespeare Martineau brand is employment professional Ewan Carr and residential development expert Charlotte O’Loughlin.

Shaun Zulafqar has been promoted to senior company secretary and is responsible for business development, project management and corporate governance advisory work to several of the firm’s Main Market and AIM-listed clients.

Within the Shakespeare Martineau brand there have been 11 promotions to associate level including Gweni Rees-Evans and Sam Naunton in the corporate team, Lubna Laheria and Emma Glazzard in the employment team, Lauren Crowhurst in the private client team, Emma Burnett in the residential conveyancing team and Ruth Thoms in the residential development team.

Also promoted to associate are Sonal Panesar and Michael Lang in the social housing team, Emma Ali in commercial property and development, and contentious probate expert Tamsin Walker.

Within the firm’s claims and insurance team, Katie Kerry has been promoted to legal counsel.

Alex Smith, managing director at Shakespeare Martineau, said: “It’s our people who make our business – and it’s our clients who benefit from our investments in them, so rewarding high performance is part of our culture at Shakespeare Martineau.

“It’s great to see such a significant number of promotions across the different teams and at a variety of levels – congratulations to all!”

Shakespeare Martineau is proactively recruiting lateral hires and teams.