Firm Committed To Further Investment In Growth And New Hires

By David Shirt

The Manchester office of law firm, Irwin Mitchell, has promoted one of the city’s leading commercial lawyers, Roy Beckett, to the position of regional managing partner for its Business Legal Services (BLS) division.
 
Roy, who joined the firm in February 2013 as part of a 14-strong real estate team from DLA Piper in Manchester, will head up the BLS team and take over from John Lord, who will focus on growing the office’s dispute resolution and insolvency offering.
 
A former office managing partner at DLA Piper in Manchester, Roy specialises in real estate development and investment work, including corporate real estate occupier work.
 
In his new role, he will continue to help drive the expansion of the six partner real estate team, whilst also targeting considerable growth for other areas of BLS including corporate, commercial, employment, regulation, banking and insolvency / restructuring services.
 
Commenting on his promotion, Roy said: “I have been impressed with the talent at Irwin Mitchell and believe the firm has the right ingredients to realise its vision and become the legal brand of choice in the commercial market place. Irwin Mitchell’s BLS team nationally has continued to expand, despite tough economic conditions, and we remain confident about our future prospects for growing our market share considerably across the region.”
 
Niall Baker, Chief Executive of Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services team, said:
 
“Roy is a high profile figure in Manchester and will now build on the good work that John Lord has done to date on improving our profile and reputation in the local business community. John has done a great job in driving the dispute resolution division forward in the North West and bringing new work into the firm. He will continue to manage our key relationships with a number of BLS's leading clients and continue to champion the ‘cross sell ethos’ which has contributed significantly to Manchester's growth and success.”
 
In addition to the appointment of Roy Beckett in February 2013, the other real estate partners to join the firm based at Bauhaus on Quay Street were Patrick Duffy, Tony Weightman and department head, Anita Weightman, In the previous six months the firm has also been joined by corporate partner, Jon Close and banking and finance specialist, Dean Gormley.