The Messenger June 2016

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10 News Mills & Reeve helps British sprinter who was unwittingly drugged by her coach Sports lawyers at the Manchester office of law firm Mills & Reeve have helped a young British sprinter who failed a drugs test return to the sport after she was unwittingly given the banned substance by her coach. Lawyer Walter Nicholls represented Bernice Wilson who was facing a four-year ban after testing positive for clomiphene. Ms Wilson had been previously banned for four years in 2011 after she tested positive for testosterone and clenbuterol. Before her return to the sport, Wilson was required to take another drugs test in February 15 which she failed and was facing another four-year ban. Ms Wilson said she had been unknowingly given the drug by her coach George Skafidas. It was also Bury-based solicitor Emma Cordock, has been appointed to the Law Society’s Children Panel as a specialist in dealing with the areas of law relating to children. Emma has been selected to join the prestigious panel following a rigorous screening process, taking AFG LAW’s total number of accredited Children Panel solicitors to five – who between them have 47 years on the panel. They are AFG LAW directors Teresa Vickers and Catherine Woolley and solicitors Anthony Theakston and Daniela Maggioni. In order to secure the accreditation, Emma had to undergo a lengthy and rigorous application process. The accreditation means that Emma is now a certified claimed that the young athlete had suffered years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of the coach. On the advice of Mills & Reeve, Ms Wilson agreed to testify against Skafidas who has subsequently been handed a lifetime ban from the sport by Britain’s Anti- Doping Agency (UKAD) for doping offences relating to Ms Wilson. The UKAD said that Skafidas had concealed a Notice of Charge sent to Wilson by UKAD and ‘knowingly provided a false account to UKAD’ during his interview in Greece in June 2015. Ms Wilson’s four-year ban was reduced to 10 months as a result of “the substantial assistance’ she gave UKAD. The Mills & Reeve team also successfully argued that her 10-month ban should have started from the date of the failed drugs test in February 2015 and not from July 2015 – the date she was due to return to the sport after the original four-year ban – meaning she could start competing immediately and not wait until May this year. In a landmark decision, UKAD agreed that the ban should start from February 2015 and Ms Wilson can now make a successful return to the sport. Walter said: “This is a fantastic outcome for Bernice who had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her oppressive coach. She still has no idea why he gave her the drug on the eve of her return to the sport. It was a brave decision to testify against Skafidas and that bravery has been rewarded.” Emma becomes fifth AFG LAW solicitor to be appointed to Law Society Children Panel Children’s Representative and can act for children through court appointed guardians in all care proceedings and complex family law cases. Emma said: “Family law has always been my passion and I have built up my experience in many varied cases since qualifying as a solicitor in 2011. Being accepted onto the Children Panel now means that I can work with guardians to represent children and ensure they achieve the best possible outcome.” Teresa Vickers, head of family law at AFG LAW, said: “We are extremely proud of Emma and all of her achievements. She is a very talented lawyer who always goes the extra mile for her clients. As a firm, we are delighted that we now have five solicitors with this prestigious accreditation, demonstrating the strength, experience and expertise that our team possess." Emma qualified as a solicitor in April 2011 and was a finalist for the legal aid lawyer of the year awards in 2015. She is co-chair of the Resolution Legal Aid Committee whose members are committed to the resolution of family disputes, promoting a non-confrontational approach to family problems and encouraging solutions that consider the needs of the family as a whole and in particular, the best interests of children. Emma has been an accredited specialist to represent adults for some time before her certificate was converted to include children too. Slater Heelis appoints Nicky Collins as partner Manchester and Cheshirebased law firm Slater Heelis LLP has appointed Nicky Collins as corporate and commercial partner. Before joining Slater Heelis LLP Nicky spent nearly ten years with George Davies Solicitors LLP and was at Browne Jacobson LLP for three years. Nicky has extensive experience in advising on mergers, acquisitions, disposals and commercial arrangements particularly in the education and healthcare sectors. She joins Katharine Mellor, Simon Wallwork and Sunil Mohindra as a senior player in the Slater Heelis corporate team. Chris Bishop, managing partner at Slater Heelis LLP said:“I’m thrilled to welcome Nicky to the team. With more than twenty years’ experience and an impressive number of referrals and recommendations, I know Nicky will be a valuable member of the corporate team.” JMW Solicitors LLP has released its 2015/2016 financial results which again reveal exceptional growth in revenue and profit. Income at the firm is up by 16% from £19.4 million to £22.5 million and provisional profit up 13.3% from £3.8 million to £4.3 million, with PEP standing at £430,000. This is against a background of an overall increase in revenue of 118% in the last 5 years from 2011 to 2016, revenue having risen from £10.3 million to £22.5 million. During the last year many of the departments have achieved very impressive growth. The Commercial Litigation team led the way with an increase of 55%, closely followed by the Private Client team with a 47% increase. Fees also substantially grew in Business Crime & Regulation (43%), Commercial Property (42%), Clinical Negligence (23%) and Family (13%). JMW has again seen many more instructions via its website, with website revenue up by 17% to £1.5 million. Fees from the solicitor’s referral network Lawshare also increased by a remarkable 50% to £1 million and the network now comprises of 270 firms, an increase of 70 in the past year. Nicky Collins Nicky Collins added:“I’m delighted to be joining Slater Heelis at such an exciting time for the corporate and commercial team.” Another outstanding year for JMW New commercial clients are joining JMW at an ever increasing rate and 70% of the work taken on in the past year came from new clients including Natwest, Compass Minerals, Parking Eye, TJ Morris, GreenThumb Ltd, Lowry Capital, LWC Drinks Ltd and the British Parking Association. Notable cases in JMW’s highly rated Clinical Negligence included the multimillion pound settlement for Bradley Albans who sustained a brain injury 2 days after birth and a £3.9 million settlement for Amos Mason who was born with serious thyroid condition which went undiagnosed meaning he suffered devastating brain damage Staff numbers at the firm have also grown from 280 to 320 in the past year including 8 new Partners. New arrivals included Mike Blood (Corporate), Michael Kennedy (Commercial Litigation), Mike Rainford and Derek Millard-Smith (Business Crime & Regulation), Liz Cotton (Employment), Tom Cressey and Majid Mahmood (Commercial Property) and Chris Love (Corporate Recovery & Insolvency). There are also several further new hires planned in the coming months including 3 new Family Partners in the summer. Commenting on another successful year for JMW Senior Partner Joy Kingsley said: “We have continued to work with many longstanding clients and we also enjoy the loyalty of a loyal and extensive individual client base. Each year many new clients join JMW and 70% of our instructions last year came from new clients. We are committed to becoming a law firm of choice in Manchester for both clients and lawyers across all disciplines. The recruitment of lawyers and those with business development skills and good client relationships, has been instrumental in the profitable growth of JMW.” Paul Walker, Managing Partner at JMW commented: “We are delighted that is has been another year of great success at JMW with further substantial increases in both revenue and profit. Our performance reflects a continual upward trend, with more 13% being added to Revenue in each of the last 5 years and profit rising substantially too. We are delighted that is has been another year of great success at JMW with further substantial increases in both revenue and profit. The effort of everyone at JMW in achieving these results is greatly appreciated
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Page 1 and 2: June 2016 October 09 1 North West L
Page 3 and 4: Contents 3 North West Law June 2016
Page 5 and 6: President’s Column 5 5 From the P
Page 7 and 8: Regulatory Affairs Committee Update
Page 9: Double celebration for Nigel Shephe
Page 13 and 14: Serious injury solicitors continue
Page 15 and 16: We’ve won a Queen’s Award Quote
Page 17 and 18: Barristers get in a spin for Charit
Page 20 and 21: 20 In today’s online, competitive
Page 22: 22 News CILEX MTSG News The Summer
Page 25 and 26: Michelle Garlick: 0161 233 7330 or
Page 27 and 28: We have added a number of new benef
Page 29 and 30: October 09 The W rld according to F
Page 31 and 32: At Clayton Legal your talent matter

The Messenger June 2016

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