Welcome

WELCOME TO

Jonathan Moreland Managing Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution and Employment teams

A very warm welcome to the latest instalment of Prism, Swinburne Maddison’s very own publication bringing you the latest news and insights from our team, clients and the local community.

My first task (and privilege!) is to formally welcome our two new Partners: Anna Stephenson, our Head of Private Client who has been with us since 2014 and Craig Malarkey who joins us from a leading Teesside firm where he headed up the corporate and commercial team. Full coverage of these appointments can be found on pages 8 and 9, along with a short interview with both Anna and Craig so you can learn more about what they do and why they’re so passionate about helping us to grow our business.

Elsewhere in the issue, we take time to celebrate our Commercial Property team who recently won the award for Property Law Firm of the Year at the prestigious Insider North East Property Awards (p. 18). The award could not have come at a better time, providing much-deserved recognition to a team who pulled out all the stops during the various lockdowns, completing more than £75m of CBILs instructions on behalf of Atom Bank plc and continuing to give 100% despite unprecedented work levels.

Enormous thanks to Leon Howe, the Incubation Manager at Durham City Incubator (DCI) who took the time to speak with us about the ambitious new business owners and entrepreneurs which DCI have been working with recently, including many in the emerging GreenTech sector, who are choosing to focus on practical ways in which their business could solve a problem for the greater good (p. 17).

I would also like to thank the team at Allies Group who have worked with us to launch our new “Made to Measure” ad campaign which celebrates what we do best: delivering exceptional client service and achieving legal solutions carefully tailored to the needs of each individual client. I won’t attempt to do justice to their work here but you can enjoy a glimpse of their creativity on pages 10 and 11.

Finally, I just want to say a few words about the outcome of the UK City of Culture bid for 2025 and pass on my heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the Durham bid who worked tirelessly to create a genuinely inspiring campaign, celebrating everything that our region has to offer and reminding us all that Durham really is “no ordinary County.”