JMW Solicitors Announces 7 New Equity Partners

Trailblazing law firm JMW Solicitors LLP has made 43 promotions across all levels, departments and offices, including a record 7 promotions to Equity level which take effect on 1st May 2021.

The 7 record promotions to Full Equity Partner are all Heads of Department at JMW. The Equity promotions in Manchester are Elspeth Kinder & Michael Chapman in Family Law, Steve Morris in Commercial litigation and Thomas Pearson in Real Estate Commercial along with Beverley Jones in Family Law (Liverpool), Lee Adams, Head of London, and Anita Rai in Employment (London).

Michael Chapman - Joint Head of Family Law - Manchester

Elspeth Kinder - Joint Head of Family Law - Manchester

Elspeth Kinder and Michael Chapman are Joint Heads of Family Law in Manchester and both are highly regarded as an authority on all issues relating to matrimonial finance and are frequently instructed by a wide variety of society´s highest earners, influential business owners and world renowned sportspeople.

Beverley Jones - Head of Family Law - Liverpool

Beverley Jones heads up JMW’s Family Law team in Liverpool and specialises in high net worth financial matters together with complicated children matters and surrogacy cases. She is currently ranked in Band 1 in legal directory Chambers 2021 in Liverpool which comments: "Beverley has excellent analytical skills and is able to identify relevant issues and summarise them in a direct and concise way." The Family law team in Manchester and Liverpool are ranked in Band 1 in Chambers and Partners 2021 and Tier 1 in Legal 500.

Steve Morris - Partner and Commercial Litigation - Manchester

Steve Morris joined the Commercial Litigation Team in May 2019 and specialises in all aspects of corporate and commercial disputes including contractual disputes, directors’ duties, shareholders disputes, warranty claims, fraud, professional negligence and obtaining and defending injunctions, including search orders and freezing injunctions.

Thomas Pearson - Partner and Head of Real Estate Commercial

Thomas Pearson is a Partner and Head of Real Estate Commercial and specialises in real estate development in the healthcare, residential, social housing, leisure and retail sectors. His clients include Castlemead Group Limited, Grafton Land & Property Limited, Blueoak Estates, Northhold Group, HSPG, Lingar Group and Whitecroft Group. Thomas has also been heavily involved with the fit out of JMW’s new office space at 3 Hardman Street in Manchester, the Plaza in Liverpool and Kings House in London.

Lee Adams is Head of the London Office and Head of the Business Crime & Regulation team. Lee was the founding Partner of JMW’s London office in May 2019. He both prosecutes and defends individuals and companies in white collar and general crime and is known for acting in fraud, money laundering and corruption investigations. He is currently prosecuting a fund manager accused of defrauding several high profile figures in the sporting world.

Anita Rai joined JMW’s London office in June 2019 to head up London’s employment law team. She advises across the entire spectrum of employment issues to businesses, ranging from thriving start-ups to professional services firms to global PLCs, as well as to senior executives and founders. Anita is also a specialist in international labour law and provides strategic employment advice for global companies wherever they need it in the world.

There have been 7 promotions to Fixed Share Equity Partner for Alison Parry in Commercial Litigation and Contentious Probate, Joe Cobb in Wills, Trusts and Probate, Lee McGovern, Head of the Client Services Team, Paul Burton in Real Estate Commercial, Richard Parkinson, Head of Commercial and Stephen Taylor Heath, Head of Sport who are all based in JMW’s Manchester office.

There have also been a further 4 promotions to Partner for Amy Shaffron in Business Crime & Regulation and Golly Etemad in Real Estate Residential both based in the London office and Jenny Arnold in Family Law and Rebecca Young in Media Law who both based in the Manchester office. There were a further 9 promotions from Associate to Senior Associate and 17 promotions from Solicitor to Associate across both the Manchester and London offices.

Commenting on the wealth of promotions at JMW, Senior Partner Joy Kingsley said:

“All these promotions are very well deserved and we were delighted to offer Equity to Anita Rai, Beverley Jones, Elspeth Kinder, Michael Chapman, Lee Adams, Steve Morris and Thomas Pearson. For our continued growth it is very important we retain our talented people by rewarding them for their considerable contributions and this is shown in the 43 promotions made across the firm this year, which represents 7% of our employees.

We are pleased to announce promotions within our London office which has only been open for two years in May and these promotions demonstrates it’s continuing growth and success.”

JMW were ranked number 33 in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work in 2020.