Three senior commercial litigation Partners are to join Irwin Mitchell in the latest stage in the expansion of its fast-growing Business Legal Services (BLS) division.
The appointments of Jonathan Sachs, Jonathon Crook and Dorrien Peters, follow the arrival of national Head of Commercial Litigation, Nigel Kissack, at the end of last year and take the total number of new BLS Partners which have joined the firm since the start of 2014 to seven.
Commenting on the latest lateral hires, Niall Baker, Partner and Chief Executive of Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services team, said:
“These three new additions will bring a great deal of experience and expertise to the firm. Jonathan, Dorrien and Jonathon are lawyers of the highest calibre and I am confident that they will further enhance our service offering and enable Irwin Mitchell to continue building its national and international client base.”
Professional negligence specialist Jonathan Sachs has joined Irwin Mitchell’s London office from Matthew Arnold Baldwin. He previously has led litigation teams at Pettman Smith and Sprecher Grier Halberstam and in addition to professional negligence work, he is recognised as a leading Solicitor in commercial litigation, civil fraud and property litigation. Jonathan has international legal experience across Europe, the Middle East, USA and Africa.
He is joined by Jonathon Crook who is moving to Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester office from Eversheds. Jonathon, who also has experience at Baker & McKenzie and Freshfields, spent six years in Hong Kong as a Senior Assistant and then Partner at Simmons & Simmons and Clifford Chance. In 2001 he returned to the UK and joined Eversheds in Manchester where he built a significant commercial litigation practice with an emphasis on banking and financial services litigation, shareholder and joint venture cases, contentious insolvency and international arbitration.
Irwin Mitchell has also boosted its team in Sheffield with the appointment of Dorrien Peters from DLA Piper. Dorrien, who originally trained as an electronic engineer with BAE before qualifying as a Solicitor in 2002, deals with commercial contract and tort disputes for corporate clients in all forms of dispute resolution. Dorrien specialises in complex disputes in the IT, manufacturing, engineering and construction sectors and the use of computer forensic methods in support of civil fraud claims. Dorrien has acted for clients in the USA, Hong Kong, the Middle East and much of Europe.
The last 12 months have seen substantial investment in Irwin Mitchell’s BLS team. In addition to Nigel Kissack, the firm has recruited Phil Berwick as its National Head of Contentious Tax as well as IP Partners, Alex Newman and Georgie Collins. Most recently it added leading European Trade Mark Attorney, Katrina Burchelll, who moved to IM’s London office as a Consultant.
Welcoming the three new partners, Nigel Kissack, partner and National Head of Commercial Litigation at Irwin Mitchell, said:
“Irwin Mitchell has added significantly to the breadth and depth of its commercial litigation offering in the last 12 months. We have added considerable IP and contentious tax expertise recently and these latest hires add strength in a number areas including finance litigation, corporate disputes and professional negligence.
“All three are experts in their field and demonstrate our intention to grow our market share by investing in highly talented people who have an innovative approach to law and proven track record when it comes to supporting the complex needs of clients.”
Other Partners to join Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services team this year are Corporate lawyer, Nick Dawson, Corporate Insolvency specialist, Edward Judge, and Corporate & Commercial expert Sarah Riding.