Price Bailey has appointed Anna Harvey as partner, bringing the total number of partners to 30 across ten offices. Harvey is the first qualified lawyer to become a partner at the firm. Harvey heads up Price Bailey’s legal services team having joined in 2015. Previously she worked in private practice as an employment lawyer and successfully set up her own law firm.

Paul Smethurst, a forensic services specialist, and Alex Duffy a corporate finance director have joined Menzies’ transaction services team. Both are based at the firm’s central London office. Smethurst has a wealth of experience in financial services investigation and litigation and, as well as acting as an expert witness in court proceedings, he regularly advises businesses and individuals in respect of arbitration and other dispute resolution proceedings. Duffy brings extensive investment banking and corporate finance experience to his new role, where he will remain focused on working in the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector, advising business owners on funding their growth plans, and generating value when they come to exit.

Watson Buckle has promoted Sam Stirzaker to corporate services manager. Stirzaker first joined the firm when she carried out a work placement eight years ago during her university studies. Having previously worked as an assistant manager within the corporate services team, she will now be helping to lead the department and assist clients with audits, financial reporting and other corporate services.

RSM has appointed Paul Dearsley as its new office managing partner in Chelmsford.  He takes over the reins from Richard White who retires as a partner of the firm 47 years’ service. Dearsley joined RSM a year ago as a business advisory partner with a focus on growing the Essex market. A partner since 2004 Dearsley spent most of his career in a regional firm where he was head of corporate services and served on the main board of directors. RSM has also announced nine promotions to partner across the UK. The promotions take effect from Monday 1 April 2019. There have been two promotions in the firm’s audit faculty, Chris Tate in London and Linda Gray in Glasgow. The firm's national tax practice sees private client specialist Zoe Martin (Swindon), VAT specialist Rowena Clifton (Manchester) and reward and incentives specialist Martin Cooper (Manchester) all promoted to partner. Across the firm’s advisory and consulting practice, Bart Sommerville has become a corporate finance partner in London; Jo Newman has been appointed as a global compliance and reporting services partner in Milton Keynes; Darren Mee (Birmingham) has become a partner in the firm's national consulting team, and; the national risk assurance team sees Neil Pickles promoted to partner in Liverpool.

Martin Chapman has joined Baldwins as a partner in the firm’s forensic accounting department. He arrives at Baldwins with more than 15 years of accountancy experience at a top 10 accountancy firm.  For the last 13 years he has specialised solely in forensic accountancy, working his way up from trainee to director level at his previous firm.

PKF Francis Clark has appointed three directors at their Exeter office. Rebecca Seeley Harris joins the firm as a director in the employer solutions team, Jane Logan becomes landed estates director and Nick Harris becomes business recovery director. Harris is a legal consultant who has run her own consultancy practice for the past 20 years. She is expert in IR35, self-employment and agency issues and has also worked at the Treasury in the Office of Tax Simplification. Logan is a chartered certified accountant and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) and Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. She has over 20 years’ experience in tax and has previously worked for one of the Big Four firms. Harris joined Francis Clark as a graduate trainee in 2004 and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2007. He has specialised in business recovery and insolvency since 2008 and passed the Joint Insolvency Examination Board (JIEB) examinations in 2013, becoming a licensed insolvency practitioner. The firm has also appointed Sonia Fisher as a business services partner in its Exeter office. Fisher joined PKF Francis Clark in 2001 and went on to qualify as a chartered accountant and then chartered tax adviser. Working for 13 years in the corporate department in Torquay, Fisher who was promoted to director in 2018 is based in Exeter and provides accountancy and taxation advice to owner-managed businesses and companies particularly in the agriculture and food and drink sectors and also specialist advice to the legal sector.

Saffery Champness has announced eight new promotions to its partnership with effect from 1 April 2019. The new partners are: Martyn Dobinson, Simon Hall, Robert Mace, Barbara Marchant, Sean McGinness, David Sedgwick, Andrew Watkinson and Lucy Woodward. The new appointments mean that Saffery Champness has 83 partners across its nine UK offices, with effect from 1 April 2019. Dobinson is a landed estates, farming and agribusiness specialist. He advises clients across the UK on matters including succession, restructuring, capital tax planning and general accounting and taxation. Hall works with a variety of commercial clients, including privately owned businesses, international groups, professional partnerships and not-for-profit organisations, advising on audit, accounting and tax matters. Mace joined the firm as a trainee in the London office in 2004. He is a chartered tax adviser with a client base that includes high net worth individuals, their families and their businesses. Marchant is a chartered tax adviser and advises individuals, trustees and beneficiaries, based both in the UK and abroad, in relation to UK tax, succession and estate planning. McGuiness is a VAT specialist and advises clients across a range of sectors. He has a particular focus on commercial, residential and mixed-use property developments as well as land transactions. Sedgwick joined the Bristol office in 2008 and qualified as a chartered certified accountant and subsequently as a Chartered Tax Adviser. He manages a diverse client base comprising landed estates & agribusinesses, owner-managed businesses and high net worth individuals. Watkinson trained and qualified at Saffery Champness in High Wycombe. He supports a wide range of commercial clients, individuals and not-for-profits providing advice on audit, accounting and tax matters, as well as business and financial planning. Woodward is a chartered tax adviser and STEP member and advises on all aspects of private client tax, with a focus on ultra high net worth individuals and non-domiciled clients on the remittance basis of taxation.

Report by Amy Austin