Blake Morgan has awarded a raft of promotions, recognising the hard work of employees and excellent service they provide to clients across its offices in London, Cardiff, Reading, Oxford, and Southampton. 48 lawyers and six senior support staff have been promoted across a wide range of sector specialisms from banking, finance and tax through to property and commercial litigation.
The firm welcomes six new legal directors: Jake Holmes, Tomos Lewis, Simon Lewis, Kate Howell, Hollie Jones and Tina Whitman as well as the promotion of Stuart Robinson to finance director.
In particular, the property team is celebrating a successful year with 15 promotions. As well as Hollie Jones’ new position, Gurbir Pattar, Emma Gardner, Abbie Rorsman, Susan Bartlett and Jonathan Williams have all been promoted to associates, and Rhiannon Peploe-Williams and Felicity Marshall have become senior associates. Sam Bevan, Catrin Wehden, Shinto Paulose, Emma Bilton, Sara Powell and Emma Fell are now senior paralegals, and James Boschat is a senior solicitor.
Elsewhere, the private client team sees seven promotions, including Andrew Lane, Amy Larcome, Rachel Knight and Jessica Howard rising to be senior solicitors, Mark Barnaby is being promoted to senior tax technician, Stephen Evans becoming a senior associate, and Dionne Yates a new executive assistant.
Commercial litigation also celebrate seven promotions. Alex Lepretre, Catherine Levi and Holly Spencer-Briggs are stepping up to be senior solicitors, James Lamond to be a senior paralegal and Katie Warner, Nicola O'Driscoll and Vikki Sidaway to be associates.
Six lawyers in the regulatory team have been promoted. As well as new legal director Tina Whitman, Stephen Parish is promoted to associate and Sarah Price, Lisa Clark and Alison Wood are now senior associates. Kirsty Gilbert-Wood has been appointed as the group operations manager.
The construction team’s two new legal directors, Simon Lewis and Kate Howell, are promoted alongside Natalie Taylor as a new associate and Sophie Latham as a senior solicitor. Meanwhile Richard Rogers and Rhian Davies in the banking team have been promoted to associates and Iona Easton to senior associate, joining new legal director Jake Holmes.
The commercial recovery team sees Sarah Athwal and Fleur Hawkey become litigation paralegals and Sheldon Panaino become a senior litigation paralegal. Rachel Wheeler is also being promoted to senior litigation administrator and Teresa Langdown has been appointed as head of group operations.
The commercial and charities team welcomes a pair of promotions – the aforementioned Tomos Lewis to legal director, and Stephen Duxfield-Karyakin to senior solicitor – and in the employment, pensions, benefits and immigration (EPBI) team, Madeleine Mould is promoted to senior associate.
In businesses support services, alongside new finance director Stuart Robinson, Sarah Pierre-Powell will step up as an associate in the risk team, and Yanna Antoniou will become the IT applications support team leader.
Kath Shimmin, chair at Blake Morgan, said: 'The wide range of specialisms in this latest round of promotions showcases the breadth of expertise among the next generations of the firm, and consistent excellence of service they deliver. This year, we are proud to be awarding so many well-deserved promotions as we continue to help develop the skills and careers of our talented lawyers and support staff here at Blake Morgan.
'I would like to congratulate everyone who has been promoted and thank them for their hard-work and dedication over the past year.'
Image caption (left to right): Top—Kate Howell, Tomos Lewis and Hollie Jones. Bottom—Jake Holmes, Tina Whitman and Simon Lewis.
