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Ampa announces 32 promotions.

Legal and professional services group Ampa has announced 32 promotions across its house of brands including Ampa, Shakespeare Martineau, Lime Solicitors and Marrons Planning.

Effective 1 May 2022, the group has promoted seven people to membership level.

Equity share

Taking an equity share in Ampa is chief marketing and people officer (CMPO) Ben Buckton, who first joined Shakespeare Martineau as marketing director in 2019 and was promoted to CMPO during the firm’s organisational restructure in 2020.

Membership and partner

Joining the membership and taking the role of partner within Shakespeare Martineau is Nicola Holton, Peter Mayhew, Sneha Nainwal and Verity Kirby.

Insolvency expert Nicola Holton has more than 10 years’ restructuring and insolvency experience having worked with a wide variety of clients ranging from insolvency practitioners and litigation funders to corporates and their directors.

Peter Mayhew, who works as part of the corporate team, has extensive experience in fund structuring, tax advantaged schemes, private equity investment, disposals and restructuring.

Heading up Shakespeare Martineau’s India desk, dual-qualified partner Sneha Nainwal has extensive experience in acting for clients, both businesses and private individuals, in complex litigation before Indian and English Courts, as well as international arbitration and mediation.

Part of the private client team, Verity Kirby specialises in estate administration, inheritance tax and capital gains tax planning, trusts, wills and succession.

Membership

Planning experts David Pendle and Gary Stephens, who work within the group’s non-legal planning consultancy Marrons Planning, have also joined the membership.

Specialising in strategic land promotion, David Pendle has been with Marrons Planning for three years, securing multiple land allocations for strategic developments and planning for around 700 homes on immediate sites in that time, including a mixture of market and affordable housing.

Gary Stephens is a town planning consultant with more than 20 years’ experience, working with national and regional developers and landowners to secure planning permission, or the allocation of their land for development.

Salaried partner

Taking the role of salaried partner within the Shakespeare Martineau brand is commercial property expert Mark Jones and litigation and dispute resolution specialists Ben Humphreys and Gareth Hegarty.

Clinical negligence expert Nikki Fahey, of Lime Solicitors, has also been promoted to salaried partner.

Legal director

Stepping into the role of legal director at Shakespeare Martineau is education specialist Anieka Sheppard, commercial development expert Ben Darlow, conveyancing expert Claire Langford, experienced IP advisor Daniel Goodall, residential development specialist Holly Lockley and corporate lawyer Jennie Davis.

Personal injury specialist Vicky Blodwell has been promoted to legal director for Lime Solicitors.

Associate

Those promoted to associate level within Lime Solicitors include clinical negligence experts Catherine Leong and Maryam Abdullah.

Within the Shakespeare Martineau brand there have been 12 promotions to associate level, including construction specialist Adam Watson, IP expert Daniel Kelly, litigation and restructuring lawyer Danielle Long, real estate finance expert Dominique Appleby-Freeth and property dispute specialist Habib Khan.

Also promoted to associate is Hannah Awcock, who specialises in commercial property and development, corporate lawyer Jade Price, residential development expert Joe Davies, private client advisor Kuldeep Chauhan, corporate lawyer Matthew Shephard, residential conveyancer Raza Ali and estate planning expert Victoria Taylor.

Sarah Walker-Smith, CEO and member of Ampa, said: “It's our people who make our business – and it’s our clients who benefit from our investments in them, so rewarding high performance is part of our culture.

It’s great that all of our people are eligible for the membership and that we are able to recognise significant business contribution in this way. We are also pleased to see an increase in female representation within the membership, which is a key priority for the group as part of our responsible business ambitions. We’re so thrilled to have such a bumper promotions round this year and congratulations to all.

All brands across Ampa are recruiting lateral hires and teams.