Mills & Reeve moved in this week to their new 32,000 sq ft of office space on the fourth and fifth floors of the One Centenary Way in Paradise, Birmingham. The move marks an end to the law firm’s 18-year stay at Colmore Row.
Starting with a team of five employees the team has now outgrown their space with more than 300 current employees, 170 of them being lawyers. Turnover for 2022/23 also grew by 12%, beating an ambitious planned growth target of 11.4%, to reach a record high of £147 million.
The full list of partner promotions and what their new roles will entail is as follows:
James Thompson will support the growth of the Birmingham insurance disputes team, with a particular focus on relationships with, and claims the firm deals with, on behalf of brokers and intermediaries and their insurers.
Kate Watkins is a specialist employment lawyer, advising commercial clients on a wide range of varied employment and HR related issues. She will focus on growth in the Birmingham commercial employment team, as well as retail and life sciences work.
Paul Krivosic is a corporate lawyer advising both private and public companies on all aspects of corporate law. Paul will focus particularly on the continued growth of Mills & Reeve’s independent sector healthcare offering and the wider corporate team.
Adam Williams is an expert in the private client team. Adam will continue to develop and expand the philanthropy offering, as well as focusing on growing the Birmingham private client and charity practice.
The newly qualified trainees include:
Neamh Towers will continue to assist the wider banking and finance team advising both lenders and borrowers on a range of transactions including corporate finance, acquisition finance and real estate finance.
Ella Moss will support the commercial disputes team representing claimants and defendants within informal and formal dispute resolution. She’ll advise on a diverse range of matters including general commercial, procurement, sport, entertainment and media, and intellectual property disputes.
Katie Jones will join the contentious private client team. She’ll specialise in estate, trust and will disputes, acting for a broad range of clients in complex contentious private client matters.
Carla Harris will join the non-contentious private client team. She’ll advise clients on personal estate planning and taxation issues, trusts and powers of attorney, estate administration and charity law.
Sitting right at the heart of Birmingham, One Centenary Way provides next-generation office space for companies, offering impressive sustainability credentials including a pure electric heating and hot water supply system and SMART access to services, information and facilities.
A major new landmark for the city overlooking Centenary Square, the low carbon, all electric and highly sustainable structure was designed by Birmingham based architects, Howells, with engineering input from Arup. The distinctive design and steel exoskeleton frame enables it to straddle the A38 Queensway tunnel that runs directly beneath it.
Mills & Reeve will be joining current occupiers Arup and JLL, with Goldman Sachs also set to move in imminently.
Jayne Hussey, Partner and Head of the Birmingham office at Mills & Reeve said: “New office and fabulous colleagues taking up new roles. Our office move, partner promotions and our new qualifiers all represent a new era for our Birmingham office where we’re committed to supporting businesses in the region and having a positive impact on our local community.”
Ross Fittall, Commercial Development Director of Paradise Birmingham development and asset manager, MEPC, said: “Welcoming Mills & Reeve to One Centenary Way is another major milestone for Paradise Birmingham and reflects the aspirations of leading firms to have the very best workspace to meet the needs of their people and clients and to support their ambitions growth plans for the future.
“Their move demonstrates the broad appeal of the building and the wider Paradise estate to growing professional and financial firms and Blue Chip national and global organisations.”
