Hat-trick of new business partners at Irwin Mitchell


IM LLP Logo 2015Law firm Irwin Mitchell has continued to invest in its fast-growing Business Legal Services (BLS) division with the appointment of three new partners across its corporate, real estate and pension teams.

Joining from Pinsent Masons, corporate partner Philip Goldsborough has joined the firm’s Leeds office.  Philip specialises in domestic and cross-border M&A transactions and corporate finance work. He has a wealth of experience, advising many high profile UK and international public and private companies on a wide range of transactions, including equity capital markets transactions and general corporate matters.  He joins a Yorkshire-based Corporate team which already consists of five partners.

The announcement coincides with the appointment of DWF’s North West head of pensions, Andrew Ashley Taylor, into its Manchester office.  Andrew has over 30 years of pensions law experience and specialises in advising employers, professional trustees and not-for-profit organisations on the full range of pension issues. These include dispute resolution, mergers, restructuring, regulatory matters and debt management.

He works for clients across the UK and overseas and is a qualified mediator, a member of the Pensions Management Institute, the Association of Pension Lawyers and the Charity Law Association. He is also a former chairman of the North West Pensions Management Institute. His appointment is also part of an investment by Irwin Mitchell to bolster its pensions team. In December 2014, it appointed, Martin Jenkins as national head of the department.  His arrival was followed by pensions associates, Claire Dimmock, Lucy Herbert and Kate Byers.

Andrew and Philip are joined by planning specialist, Martha Grekos, who moves to Irwin Mitchell’s London office from Eversheds.  Martha practices in all aspects of planning law, environmental law and parliamentary/infrastructure work, with a focus on large complex regeneration projects (mainly in London) and high profile infrastructure projects (mainly transport, energy and aviation).

She has advised on significant national energy and infrastructure projects include advising HS2 Ltd/ the Department of Transport on the hybrid bill to build and operate High Speed Two and advising Transport for London on Crossrail 2.  Martha also has experience in nuclear power stations and offshore wind farms.  She is currently listed as one of the top three planning lawyers in the UK by Planning Magazine (2014).

Niall Baker, chief executive of Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services division said: “We are delighted to announce the arrival of Andrew, Martha and Philip to our business team.  Irwin Mitchell has continued to make great strides with its senior level recruitment since the start of the year and I look forward to making further announcements soon.”

These latest appointments take the total number of new BLS Partners to join since the start of 2015 to eight. Earlier this year, Irwin Mitchell appointed Simon Griffiths into its corporate team as its National Head of Equity Capital Markets.  Other partner hires in 2015 are Yorkshire-based employment specialist, Kirsty Ayre, restructuring partner, Stephen George, real estate partner Ben Acheson and commercial litigation specialist, Simon Ellis.

Commenting on Philip’s appointment, Chris Rawstron, national head of corporate & commercial at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Philip has a superb reputation and we are delighted he has chosen to join Irwin Mitchell.  We already of course have a very well-established team in Yorkshire and the addition of Philip complements the team extremely well.”

On Martha’s appointment, Rob Thompson, head of real estate in London said: “Martha comes with a great reputation and is a rising star in the world of planning and we are delighted to have recruited someone of her calibre and experience.  She will be a significant boost to our highly regarded real estate team in London which is currently working on a number of very high profile planning matters.”

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