Ward Hadaway promotes six to Associate

On the up – promoted Associates at Ward Hadaway (from left) Nathan Bilton, Steph Rodgers, Nick Gholkar, Flora Mewies and Neil Willamson.

Nathan Bilton, Nick Gholkar, Ashleigh Lavender, Flora Mewies, Steph Rodgers and Neil Williamson are now all Associate Solicitors at the firm, which operates from offices in Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester.

The six operate in a wide range of different practice areas across the firm, demonstrating the range of services which Ward Hadaway offers to clients as a Northern law firm for national business.

Four of the promoted lawyers are based in Ward Hadaway’s Newcastle office.

Nick Gholkar works in the firm’s property department where he advises on all aspects of commercial property and planning matters.

His experience includes advising on the sale and purchase of agricultural holdings and agricultural tenancies, advising on landlord and tenant matters and on conditional contracts and option agreements for development sites.

Commercial litigation specialist Ashleigh Lavender acts on a range of matters including contractual disputes, product liability disputes, professional negligence claims, tortious disputes, intellectual property disputes and contentious probate disputes.

Promotion success – Ashleigh Lavender has been promoted to Associate at Ward Hadaway.

The value of each case varies from small claims to multi-track claims valued at £5m and spans the full spectrum of the litigation timeline from pre-action to long-running trials.

Steph Rodgers is a member of Ward Hadaway’s Private Client team where she advises clients on estate, succession and inheritance tax planning, including the drafting of wills and creation of trusts, and the administration of trusts and estates. She recently achieved a distinction in the STEP Diploma in Trusts and Estates.

Steph also provides advice on capacity matters, including the preparation and registration of Lasting Powers of Attorney, and Court of Protection applications.

Construction lawyer Neil Williamson advises both private and public sector clients on matters including building contracts, consultant appointments, collateral warranties, novations, bonds and guarantees.

He also advises on construction-related disputes, and has experience in a wide range of different forums including litigation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation.

Two of the new Associates are based in Ward Hadaway’s Leeds office.

Commercial lawyer Nathan Bilton provides advice on commercial arrangements and contracts, with particular experience in respect of ICT and education.

He carries out work for clients including local authorities and other public sector bodies, PLCs, SMEs and entrepreneurs and acts for both suppliers and customers in respect of IT products and services.

Flora Mewies is an Employment lawyer with experience of a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious employment issues including disciplinary and grievance issues, restructuring and redundancy exercises, TUPE issues, exit strategies and advising on settlement agreements.

Flora also specialises in immigration advice to organisations and individuals.

Jamie Martin, managing partner at Ward Hadaway, said: “Our six new Associates all richly deserve their promotions – they have performed exceptionally well and have proved themselves to be extremely adept at using their expertise and growing experience for the benefit of our clients.

“In their abilities, aptitude and capacity for hard work, they exemplify the qualities which we look to bring to every piece of work which we do as a firm.

“It is particularly pleasing that we have an even split of male and female lawyers advancing their careers at the firm and that many of those being promoted started out as trainees at Ward Hadaway.

“I congratulate all six for their achievement and look forward to continuing to work with them.”