The appointment of new partners Rachel Nicholls, Richard Symonds and Richard Millington, brings a wealth of specialist commercial experience and heavyweight industry credentials to the firm as it gears up to move into bespoke premises at the XYZ building in early 2017.

Registered UK and European Trade Mark Attorney, Rachel Nicholls, joins as a partner from the trade mark team at Marks & Clerk LLP. Rachel brings more than 15 years’ experience to her role at Shoosmiths, having managed all aspects of the protection, maintenance and commercialisation of trade mark portfolios in a wide variety of sectors including automotive, fashion, sports management, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and finance in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

A key appointment to the Shoosmiths IP team, Rachel will lead the new national Shoosmiths trade mark practice which will advise clients on all aspects of the protection and enforcement of their trade mark rights. Her appointment will further enhance the Shoosmiths Manchester IP and Creative Industries team, which has gone from strength to strength during the last two years under the leadership of partner, Laura Harper.

Richard Millington joins Shoosmiths Manchester from Iconix Brand Group Inc, home of the Umbro, Starter and Peanuts brands, where he was the senior in-house counsel.

He will add his extensive knowledge of structuring commercial deals in the global sports, fashion and entertainment markets to help develop the firm’s established sports practice, as well as boosting its commercial team in the North West.

Richard’s career history encompasses several senior in-house roles at Nike Inc, including Legal Manager for its Football Business Units, where he advised on Nike’s endorsement deal with Manchester United, and General Counsel for Umbro, where he advised on deals with the Football Association, Manchester City and the New York Cosmos amongst others.

His appointment will also bring new commercial insight to Shoosmiths’ services for in-house legal teams.  Richard has managed legal teams and budgets on a global level, worked with lawyers from the top US firms through to small boutiques, executed strategic corporate and commercial deals and managed tough litigation in many jurisdictions.

Real estate litigation expert, Richard Symonds, joins the Manchester real estate practice. His appointment makes Shoosmiths’ property litigation team one of the largest in Manchester, with six specialist lawyers.

Richard has 20 years’ experience in all aspects of real estate litigation and joins Shoosmiths following a 12-year tenure at Addleshaw Goddard. Hired as an associate in its London team in 2004, he worked his way to the role of legal director in just five years. Prior to this he spent eight years at the Titmuss Sainer Dechert – now Dechert LLP – where he completed his training and worked as a solicitor in the City.

Richard has expertise in all aspects of commercial landlord and tenant litigation and portfolio management, including: Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 lease renewals and oppositions to renewal,  forfeiture, guarantee claims under the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 and avoidance strategies, the operation of break clauses and dilapidations claims. He also has extensive experience in advising developers and the hospitality sector.

Richard’s appointment is a direct response to growing client demand for real estate litigation support, which is being fuelled by the continued growth of the Manchester real estate practice. The team has tripled its client base in the last 3 years and is continuing to attract new clients including Renaker Build, FO Developments, Fortis and Student Castle.

This latest raft of recruits follows on from the recent appointment of private client specialist, partner Adam Draper, who joined Shoosmiths to bolster its trust and estate disputes and professional negligence capabilities.

Commenting on the latest Shoosmiths Manchester team expansion, head of office, Vaqas Farooq said, ‘These specialist partner appointments have been fuelled by demand from within our existing practice groups as a result of an ever-growing client roster.

‘By bringing these exceptionally experienced partners on board we are broadening the range of specialist, commercial advice we are able to provide to our clients from a single source and are creating multiple channels for cross-selling. We expect further growth over the remainder of the year as we prepare to move into new state-of-the-art offices at XYZ.’