Blake Morgan rewards 37 lawyers and support staff in latest promotions round

Leading law firm Blake Morgan has announced the promotion of 37 lawyers and support staff who work across its offices in the Southampton, Thames Valley, London and Cardiff.

This is another successful year for the firm as they celebrate a number of tier 1 rankings in the legal directories, inclusion in The Times Best 200 Law Firms and a number of regional awards including Property Law Firm of the Year on the South Coast and Law Firm of the Year in Wales.

The latest promotions round recognises and rewards the commitment of their staff in putting the client first and contributing to these successes.

At the firm’s Southampton office there were ten promotions. It’s been another great year for the South Coast real estate team and this is reflected in the promotions of Debbie Brown to senior associate, Felicity Marshall to associate and Samuel Mann to senior solicitor. The Litigation, Dispute and Resolution team is also celebrating a hat-trick of promotions with Rachel Gimson taking on a new role as senior associate, Rebecca Smith becoming a senior chartered legal exec and Julia Prior from the BM Injury Group promoted to senior associate.

An increase in demand for the firm’s private law services in the region, particularly residential conveyancing sees team members Sue Cornall promoted to legal director and Mark Polkinghorne to paralegal. They are joined by family law expert Rachel Giles who has been promoted to senior solicitor. In Commercial Services, Jasmin Eames has also been promoted to Senior Solicitor.

Six promotions have been announced at Blake Morgan’s Thames Valley offices.  Succession and tax experts Alison Craggs and Kathryn Woodward have both been promoted to senior associate. A further four promotions have been made across the firms Reading and Oxford offices with Jake Holmes in the Banking and Finance team stepping up to senior solicitor, commercial litigation lawyer Stephen Schneider becoming a legal director and Tim Coles in the corporate team taking on the role of senior associate. Karen Kirk in the risk team has also been promoted to legal director.

In the firm’s London office, there are six promotions. It’s been a strong year for the commercial litigation team with Conor Daly and Valya Georgieva stepping up to senior associate and senior solicitor respectively. Sophie Shaladi and Peter Lewis have been promoted to associate and senior solicitor in the London real estate team. Corporate lawyer Michelle Davenport has been promoted to legal director and residential conveyancing expert Steven Thom is promoted to senior associate.

The Cardiff office has announced fifteen promotions.  This includes five promotions within their real estate team -Gareth Howlett (senior associate) Holly Dobbins and Rhiannon Peploe-Williams (senior solicitors) and James Mugleston and Andrew Morgan (associates). Construction lawyer Charlotte Vince joins them as a newly promoted associate and the firms property litigation offering is bolstered by the promotion of David George to senior solicitor.  Other promotions in Wales include Sarah Whittle and Joanna Corbett-Simmons in commercial litigation being promoted to senior associate. Commercial lawyers Jon Belcher, Gillian McCue (senior associates) Charlotte Cheetham and Thomas Vosper (senior solicitors) have all been promoted and Lisa Davies and Nicky Sherard in the private law team are now legal director and senior associate respectively.

Blake Morgan Chairman Bruce Potter said: “The success of Blake Morgan comes down to our people and we are pleased to celebrate their dedication and hard work in our latest promotions round.

“These promotions reflect their commitment to putting our clients first by fully understanding their business and offering commercially sound solutions to their legal issues. I would like to thank and recognise each and every one of them for their expertise, commerciality and commitment.”