People on the move: weekly round up of those moving on or up

International legal and professional services firm Ince has announced the appointment of James Channo as a partner in its corporate team in London.

Channo – who is consistently recognised as a leading lawyer for corporate and M&A in Chambers UK and in The Legal 500 UK ­– advises clients on all corporate matters in a range of sectors, including FinTech, mining, oil and gas, financial services, pharma and technology. A fluent Spanish speaker, his clients work in jurisdictions spanning the MENA region, United States, Spain, Latin America and Australia.

Harneys has announced partner Rachel Graham has been appointed managing partner of the firm’s London office.

Graham joined Harneys in 2007 and heads the firm’s BVI corporate transactional practice in the EMEA region. She is highly regarded in her field, with almost 25 years’ experienc, 17 years of which have been offshore. Graham advises corporations, high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs, financial institutions, seed capital investors, private equity funds and their advisers, and is the client relationship partner for several of the firm’s key clients.

The firm’s current managing partner, Phillip Kite, relocated to the firm’s London office in 2013 and took on the role of London managing partner in 2017. He is now set to return to the BVI to continue his practice.

Ward Hadaway has appointed Helen Hill as a partner. Hill joins the firm with over 12 years’ experience as a property litigator. She advises clients on a wide range of property related issues including property disrepair, tenant insolvency and telecommunications law and will be based at the firm’s Leeds office, working with clients across the north and nationally.

Hill is one of only a small number of property litigators with extensive experience dealing with property issues relating to the Electronic Communications Code – advising land owners on new and existing telecommunications leases and the removal of masts and telecommunications apparatus from land and buildings for the purposes of redevelopment.

Jeremy Hardy has been promoted to director within the property litigation team (pictured). Newcastle-based Hardy has considerable experience in commercial landlord and tenant and real estate property litigation, undertaking work for a range of clients including developers, local authorities, national retailers, housing associations, investor clients and commercial occupiers. He also advises on agricultural land issues.

Blacks Solicitors has appointed Paul Sagar as a senior associate solicitor in its commercial dispute resolution team. Sagar has joined the firm to expand its specialist property disputes offering. He has previously worked at leading law firms in London and Leeds, and most recently at a boutique property litigation practice.  

He has over 15 years’ experience, acting in a wide variety of commercial and residential property disputes for landowners, occupiers, lenders, receivers and developers. Sagar also has specialist experience in the field of telecommunications, having represented both site providers and operators in the past. 

Leading offshore law firm Mourant has appointed eight new partners, seven of them internal promotions, with effect from 1 February 2022.

Alex Henderson, James Broad, Jessica Lee, Jonathan Moffatt, Katie Hooper, Mike Jones and Paul Trewartha have all been promoted to partner. Michael Popkin has joined as a partner from another firm.  

Henderson (Jersey) is a funds lawyer who advises across asset classes with particular expertise in private equity and real estate investment structures. Henderson qualified at SJ Berwin (latterly King & Wood Mallesons) and worked in their investment funds team before moving to Goodwin Procter. 

Broad (Hong Kong) specialises in investment funds with a focus on private equity and hedge funds, guiding clients through the initial set-up process, launch and ongoing operation and maintenance of their fund. Broad trained and worked in the corporate team at Skadden in London, before moving to another offshore law firm in Hong Kong. 

Lee (Hong Kong) advises both local and multinational companies on cross-border corporate law transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, financings, corporate restructurings, general corporate advisory and pro bono matters. Lee trained and worked at Linklaters, which included secondments to The Royal Bank of Scotland and Prudential, before joining Mourant in 2015.

Moffatt (Cayman Islands) specialises in commercial litigation and insolvency. Prior to joining Mourant in 2015, Moffatt practised as an English barrister with Outer Temple Chambers in London for four years, acting in a range of commercial and financial services work. He also completed secondments at the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England and worked as a judicial assistant to Lord Rix in the Court of Appeal.

Hooper (Jersey) is an experienced litigator focusing on a broad spectrum of litigation matters, including contentious trusts and private client, insolvency, banking and professional negligence. Hooper practised at the Bar of England and Wales from 2009 to 2012 and 2017 to 2019 and has previously been named as one of eprivateclient's Top 35 Under 35 and by Citywealth in their Future Top 100: 2020 List.

Popkin (Hong Kong) has particular expertise in complex cross-border transactions and disputes, focusing on contentious and non-contentious aspects of offshore investment funds and trust structures, shareholders' disputes, insolvency and restructuring.  Before joining Mourant this year, Michael worked for another offshore firm for six years in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands. Previously, Michael practised for 14 years in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution department of Allens in Sydney, Australia and for 10 years with other leading law firms in South East Asia.

Jones (Jersey) joined Mourant last year from the Jersey Financial Services Commission, where he was director of policy and risk, to launch and lead Mourant Consulting, the firm's new regulatory consulting business. Jones has over 20 years' regulatory experience including working at Deloitte (London), the Australian Financial Services regulator and Crestbridge (Jersey).

Trewartha (Hong Kong) advises on a wide range of banking and finance matters, including structured finance trades, debt capital market issuances and margin loans as well as a broad spectrum of cross-border transactions including asset finance, fund financing, acquisition and leveraged finance and general corporate lending. Trewartha joined Mourant in 2014, having previously worked at Clayton Utz in Australia and Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong.

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