Welcome

Spring is in the air - having brought with it an excess of volcanic ash which left the country grounded. But just as the planes are now back up in the air, so too is the outcome of the election and a sense of uncertainty still hangs like a cloud over the current economic recovery. A new government will no doubt start with some hard decisions about taxation and public expenditure. How that will impact on the economy remains to be seen. In spite of all this Marriott Harrison has made important progress in the last year and there is an atmosphere of spring-like, if guarded, optimism about the times ahead.

Bucking the trend of the contraction of many other City law firms, current conditions have opened many opportunities to Marriott Harrison. One of those is the ability for us to appoint a number of excellent partners with impressive track records. One of our objectives has been to construct a substantive employment law group to meet the increasing demands of clients in the wake of the seemingly endless stream of employment related legislation pouring out of both Brussels and Westminster. Shortly before Christmas, we were delighted to welcome Bob Cordran and Jill Andrew to the partnership. After spending time at Simmons & Simmons and Olswang, Bob had most recently been at Thomas Eggar; Jill was a founding partner of City employment specialist Archon and joined us after a short spell at Dawsons. They have added a very considerable breadth and depth of experience to complement the existing team of Katherine de Souza (partner) and Katharine Ryder Richardson (solicitor).

In January, the litigation department was bolstered by the appointment of Gurmeet Kaur Sidhu as a partner. Gurmeet has broad ranging experience gained not only in her native Malaysia but more recently with Intellectual Property and Life Sciences specialist firm, Roiter Zucker. In addition to her litigation work, Gurmeet is also spearheading the development of our relationships with organisations and law firms based in both Malaysia and India. Gurmeet’s appointment brings the total of partners in the firm to 19. Profiles of Jill, Gurmeet and Bob are included in this edition of the Update. The partnership is contemplating making further senior appointments in the Media and Technology group.

We also bring you a broad range of articles covering recent legislation and commentaries on legal developments. I hope you enjoy this edition of the Update and look forward to any feedback that you may have.

Tony Morris
Managing Partner