The Birmingham office of global law firm DLA Piper has made a large round of promotions.
Lisa Hodgson and Samantha Haglington, from the practice's employment team, have become legal director and senior associate respectively.
Also stepping up to senior associate level are Gemma Rooney and Neetu Sehdev (finance, projects and restructuring), Taryn Jones and Joe Cater (litigation and regulatory), Michael Stead (intellectual property and technology) and Pieter Claussen (real estate).
Birmingham managing partner Trevor Ivory said: "DLA Piper has a unique role to play in supporting the region's businesses and recruiting and retaining the very best talent is key to our ability to perform that role.
"To be in a position to announce these promotions at the end of such a turbulent year is proof of that talent.
"These promotions are part of our ambitious growth plans for Birmingham which are unaltered by the pandemic and which will gather pace as we approach our move to prestigious new offices at Two Chamberlain Square in July."
Greater Birmingham Apprenticeship Awards 2021
The Greater Birmingham Apprenticeship Awards are back for 2021 and now open for entries here.
The event will be held at Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham on Thursday November 11 and will celebrate apprentices, employers and training providers across 12 categories including our overall Apprentice of the Year.
The deadline to enter the awards is midday on Monday September 20 and sponsorship opportunities are also now available.
Please email richard.edwards@reachplc.com for details and follow the hashtag #GBAA21 for updates on social media.
For more information about our Apprenticeship Awards and other events please visit www.reachplcevents.com.
Also in Birmingham's legal sector, Irwin Mitchell has added four new faces to its partnership and 15 to associate and senior associate roles.
The new partners are Amy Keogh (restructuring and recovery), Donna Seferta (employment) and Jenna Harris and Laura Daly (medical negligence).
The new senior associates are Tom Fletcher and Mark Cawley (medical negligence), Jon-Paul Casati (commercial dispute resolution), Leanne Moretta (employment), Lucy Bloom (court of protection) and Steven Baylis (public law).
And the new associates are Abbi Copson and Kate Fellows (employment), Leanne Leighton and Jen Shipley (medical negligence), Tara Smith and Lucy Todd (family), Gabrielle Kinsella (costs), James Riley (serious injury) and Michelle Chapman (wills, trusts and estates disputes).
Irwin Mitchell also recently announced that it was adopting a ‘flexible by choice' approach with colleagues free to choose how and when they worked, subject to the needs of their role and their clients.
Birmingham-based telecoms firm called Flomatik has appointed a new chief executive.
Dean Checkley has more than 35 years of experience in the telecoms industry having begun his career at 16 as an apprentice at GEC Telecommunications in Coventry.
He was formerly an interim managing director for Rural Optic.
Flomatik runs its main design and planning facilities out of Fort Dunlop in Castle Bromwich.
Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership has appointed a new director of economic strategy.
Henriette Breukelaar has a background in economic development, having worked as marketing and communications director at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and head of the project portfolio at Innovation Birmingham.
She also spent ten years at the now defunct regional development agency Advantage West Midlands where she progressed to director.
Accountancy firm Azets has promoted Ben Sheldon to director of its Birmingham operation.
The firm created a new audit team in the city in 2019 which Mr Sheldon joined from PwC.
He also supports Azets nationally, sitting on its national audit technical board.
"I'm delighted to have contributed to the continuing growth of the Birmingham office and I am excited to hit the ground running in my new director position," he said.
Law firm Shoosmiths has announced three partners in its Birmingham office.
Elinor Sanbach (real estate), Lucy Taylor (wealth protection) and Sarah Tedstone (data protection, privacy and cyber security) have all stepped up.
Shoosmiths said the promotions meant that now 38 per cent of the firm's partners were women.
Financial services firm BDO has appointed a new senior corporate finance specialist.
Drew Johnson will head up a new asset-based lending advisory service in the Midlands.
He joins as a director from PNC Business Credit, a large US financial institution where he worked as a business development director originating, structuring and executing large SME and mid-market transactions, ranging from £1 million to £150 million.
He has 20 years of corporate finance and banking experience.
