Legal and professional services group Ampa has announced 34 promotions across its house of brands including Shakespeare Martineau, Mayo Wynne Baxter, Lime Solicitors and Marrons.
Effective May 2023, the group has promoted three people to equity membership as well as 10 to partner.
Becoming an equity member in Ampa are Shakespeare Martineau partners Heledd Wyn and Sandeep Leighs.
Heledd is a private client expert and specialist in long term care and estate planning at the firm’s Bristol hub. Meanwhile, Sandeep is an employment specialist within the firm’s Leicester hub, who was named a rising star in the 2022 Legal 500.
Also joining the membership is private client partner Rebecca Louis, from Sussex-based Mayo Wynne Baxter, who has extensive knowledge in wills, trusts and probate, as well as succession planning.
New partners at Shakespeare Martineau include:
Esther Maxwell in employment, who specialises in supporting the education sector and leads the schools practice at the firm.
Jennie Wheildon, has more than 10 years’ experience in the agriculture sector, assisting farming clients with a variety of property matters.
Jonathan Fear, has been with the firm for more than 30 years, working on strategic land acquisitions and complex development projects.
In intellectual property, with a special focus on patents, confidential information, databases and copyright, Kerry Russell.
Kylie Wesson, who spent the first seven years of her career working for local government and now specialises in build to rent developments and local authority planning work.
Lucy Haynes, who is a specialist in residential development, acting for housebuilders, promoters and landowners on a range of matters from instant land to strategic land transactions.
And finally, supporting individuals with all aspects of private client work including inheritance tax planning, asset protection and estate planning at Shakespeare Martineau is newly-promoted partner Sarah Brack.
At Sussex law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter, family specialist Karen Jeary, who advises on all areas of family law including divorce and complex financial matters, has been promoted to partner
In planning and design consultancy Marrons, Simon Macklen, socio-economics expert, has taken the step up to partner, along with Karen Brightman, who has been promoted to planning director in the consultancy.
Peter Jones, an expert in personal injury at consumer brand Lime Solicitors, has also been promoted to partner, while clinical negligence expert Rhea Javed has been promoted to associate.
Promoted to legal director within the Shakespeare Martineau brand is employment professional Ewan Carr and residential development expert Charlotte O’Loughlin.
Shaun Zulafqar has been promoted to senior company secretary and is responsible for business development, project management and corporate governance advisory work to several of the firm’s Main Market and AIM-listed clients.
Within the Shakespeare Martineau brand there have been 11 promotions to associate level including Gweni Rees-Evans and Sam Naunton in the corporate team, Lubna Laheria and Emma Glazzard in the employment team, Lauren Crowhurst in the private client team, Emma Burnett in the residential conveyancing team and Ruth Thoms in the residential development team.
Also promoted to associate are Sonal Panesar and Michael Lang in the social housing team, Emma Ali in commercial property and development, and contentious probate expert Tamsin Walker.
Within the firm’s claims and insurance team, Katie Kerry has been promoted to legal counsel.
And at Mayo Wynne Baxter, there have been four promotions to associate, including private client experts Lauren Puttock-Brown and Ursula Tanner, personal tax and estate planning specialist Lucy Hollingsworth, and commercial property expert Louise Trist.
Sarah Walker-Smith, CEO 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 across all our brands in Ampa.
“It’s great to see such a significant number of promotions across the different brands and at a variety of levels – congratulations to all!”
All brands across Ampa are recruiting lateral hires and teams.