Stewarts Law

Stewarts Law is expanding its litigation capability by hiring two partners. Debbie Chism of Manches has joined Stewarts' divorce team, headed by Stephen Foster and will be followed closely by Emma Hatley of Withers.

Debbie is the “consumer expert” on divorce on the BBC's Working Lunch, a fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a member of the Central London Collaborative Forum.

Emma was pivotally involved in the reported cases of Sorrell and Charman. Emma was awarded the Spears Wealth Management under 40 lawyer of the year. Debbie and Emma co-founded England's first multi-disciplinary group of collaborative professionals, Collaborative Solutions in 2007.

Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP has hired Jeff Brown as a consultant in its construction and engineering group. Jeff joins from Hammonds' Birmingham office where he was head of construction. Prior to joining Hammonds, Jeff was senior partner at Neil F Jones. Jeff 's arrival follows closely on from the appointment of Michael Scott who recently joined RPC from White & Case to strengthen the firm's offering to contractors in the firm's projects and outsourcing department.

Beachcroft LLP has recruited Guy Bredenkamp to head its Newcastle employment team.

Guy will join Beachcroft as a partner after 10 years' experience at Eversheds of advising the healthcare industry on high-profile and strategic issues.

Sue Jenkins, national head of the employment and pensions group at Beachcroft said: “I am thrilled that we've managed to land Guy. Not only is he known for being legally brilliant, the feedback we've had from clients and peers about his relationship skills is second to none.”

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has elected 14 new partners. They are Michael Han, Jennifer Bethlehem, Wessel Heukamp, Grace Huang, Patrick Ko, Sebastian Lawson, Charles-Antoine Leunen, Piers Prichard Jones, Harald Spruit, Arend von Riegen, Reza Mohtashami, Alexander Glos, Ana Lopez and Rutger Kleemans.