[1]Cathy Leech and Deirdre Healy join Irwin Mitchell
Four senior hires are set to boost top 20 law firm Irwin Mitchell [2]’s personal legal services team as two consultants and two partners join the firm this week.
Senior brain and spinal injury lawyers Cathy Leech and Deirdre Healy are joining Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester office as consultants after leaving Pannone, part of Slater and Gordon. The highly regarded duo follow Irwin Mitchell’s acquisition of specialist personal injury law firm MPH Solicitors which was also primarily based in Manchester and will create a serious injury powerhouse along with Irwin Mitchell’s existing team which is already ranked number one in the independent legal guides to law.
Also joining the personal injury team is medical negligence partner Guy Forster who is returning to Irwin Mitchell after a couple of years heading up Pennington Manches Cambridge team. Guy originally completed his training at Irwin Mitchell and worked for several years as an associate before moving East. He has been involved in high profile clinical negligence cases and specialises in claims involving birth injury, IVF treatment, negligent surgery and inquests.
Guy is accredited by the Law Society’s clinical negligence panel, AvMA (Action against Medical Accidents) specialist clinical negligence panel and has senior litigator status with APIL (the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers). He will join Irwin Mitchell’s new Cambridge office which opened this summer.
Gavin Faber completes the new senior recruits as a partner in Irwin Mitchell’s contentious trust & probate team led by Paula Myers who also joined the firm in 2013. Gavin moves from niche practice, Higgs and Sons Solicitors and will work out of Irwin Mitchell’s Birmingham office.
He is an affiliate member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and holds the STEP Advanced Certificate in Trust disputes. Gavin is one of the few full members of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists in the West Midlands.
Craig Marshall, chief executive of personal legal services division at Irwin Mitchell, said: “We are delighted that these senior lawyers have decided to join us at Irwin Mitchell. They are of the highest calibre and are well-respected lawyers in their field. All of them share the same culture and values we have here at Irwin Mitchell in putting the client’s interests at the heart of what we do.
“The new recruits signal our intention to substantially grow our business and come in a year in which we have already opened two new offices in Cambridge and Southampton. We are confident that these lawyers will be of real benefit to the firm and our clients and look forward to working with them as they begin work this week.”
Also just last month Irwin Mitchell announced the appointment of a team of four asbestos lawyers in Bristol from Lyons Davison led by partner Virginia Chalmers and has also recently appointed serious injury partner Claire Howard in the new Southampton office and clinical negligence Partner Julianne Moore in Sheffield.