Appointment Marks Seventh New Business Partner In Manchester In Last Seven Months

By David Shirt

The Manchester office of national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, has announced the appointment of partner, John Vickery, as part of its strategic drive to continue building a first-class business legal services team across the city.

John, who leaves DLA Piper, specialises in all areas of corporate restructuring and recovery with an emphasis on contentious work. He acts for insolvency practitioners, lenders, and creditors and has particular expertise in LPA and fixed charge receiverships in commercial leasehold issues in insolvency and asset recovery.

Roy Beckett, partner and head of Business Legal Services at Irwin Mitchell in Manchester, said: “John is a superb operator and someone who is very well known in the market. He will be a big asset for Irwin Mitchell and will complement not only our existing restructuring team, but also our wider business offering.”

John is the latest high profile appointment to Irwin Mitchell’s fast-growing Business Legal Services division and the seventh partner to have joined the firm’s commercial team in Manchester.

Earlier this year it recruited four leading real estate partners, Roy Beckett, Anita Weightman, Patrick Duffy and Tony Weightman from DLA Piper. The quartet moved as part of a 14-strong team which included five associates. One of these, Claire Quinn, has since been promoted to partner.

In the last 12 months, the business has also added corporate partner, Jon Close, and Dean Gormley, who heads up the firm’s banking and finance team across the North of England. Irwin Mitchell has since bolstered its business team further with the appointment of two experienced associates - senior corporate specialist, Richard Life, and real estate planning expert, Emily Williams.

Niall Baker, partner and chief executive of Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services Division, said: “Irwin Mitchell is bucking the trend when it comes to growth in the commercial legal sector and the 13 business partners that we recruited over the last year illustrates our commitment to investment and our confidence in the future. John is a great example of the type of high calibre individual that we are attracting to the firm and there will certainly be more to come.”