In Touch - November 2007
In this edition of In Touch, the newsletter designed to highlight just a few of the firm’s activities over the past few months, we introduce 3 of our latest partners; show how some of our staff spent their spare time; tell about the conference we organised on behalf of a charity for Children with Acquired Brain Injury and mark a landmark ruling in an employment tribunal.
A loss for Londonand Birmingham the region’s gain
Lawyers on the run!
Ground-breaking conference aims to helpchildren with acquired brain injuries
Adopt policies or facethe consequences
Freeth Cartwright helps steer logistics firm to NEW HQ
A loss for London and Birmingham is the region’s gain
Freeth Cartwright’s Commercial Property Team, one of the most respected outside London, has been further enhanced by the addition of 3 leading figures in the field - Richard Osborn, Peter Hanson and Craig Downhill.
Development specialist Richard joined our Leicester office as a partner after nearly five years at the Birmingham office of Eversheds. It is a return to the city for him as he is a graduate of the University of Leicester and was previously a member of the property team at both the Leicester and Birmingham offices of Edge & Ellison (now Hammonds) and has also lived in Leicestershire for the last fifteen years.
Peter joined from London-based Davies Arnold Cooper, where he had been an equity partner since 2004. One of the projects he worked on was the acquisition of a partially-let 14,000 sq ft office unit on the Nottingham Business Park, a building now part-occupied by the DVLA.
Craig was previously at the London office of global firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and is now Partner and Head of Property Litigation at the firm. He has worked on many large projects, including acting for a local authority in connection with a right of way claimed by a neighbour across the middle of a development site of a half-completed football stadium and acting for liquidators in relation to a substantial damages claim brought by a creditor developer in respect of an alleged right of pre-emption. We now have over 100 lawyers in our property team.
Our new Birmingham office opens on 3rd December making us more accessible to clients and increasing our national coverage.
Teams from many major businesses across the region sacrificed their weekend lie-ins to take part in the Cooper Parry Corporate Challenge on Sunday 16 September 2007, running half of the full Robin Hood marathon course around the streets of Nottingham. Freeth Cartwright LLP fielded three teams of five runners, each team covering the thirteen-mile course in five legs.
The runners were raising money for the four Corporate Challenge charities: Headway (the brain injury association), the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund, Clic Sargent (which provides cancer care for children) and the Alzheimer’s Society.
Freeth Cartwright LLP proved they are the fastest lawyers in Nottingham by beating all the other legal teams and finishing seventh overall with an impressive time of just over one hour and thirty seven minutes. Our second team covered the half marathon distance in a time of two hours and three minutes placing them fifty-third. The firm’s third team came in a valiant seventieth.
The runners raised several hundred pounds to be split between the four charities; a fantastic result and well worth the blisters!
Ground-breaking conference aims to help children with acquired brain injuries
We teamed up with trust-ed for their inaugural conference in November. Trust-ed are a newly-formed charity set up to provide specialist educational services for young people with acquired brain injuries. Nottingham-based trust-ed hosted Education After Acquired Brain Injury: The Way Forward at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, with the aim of raising awareness and understanding of the long-term educational need of children and young people with acquired brain injuries.
Jane Goulding, a personal injury specialist at Freeth Cartwright, who organised the event, commented: “every child matters, and children with acquired brain injuries have unique special needs that need to be addressed on an ongoing basis.
“Not only did this conference have leaders in their field speaking to delegates, but it was groundbreaking as it focused on the concept of education as rehabilitation, emphasising the need for the provision of short and long term education and assessment facilities to help young people with acquired brain injuries fulfil their potential and putting the family central to the success of that rehabilitation.”
The conference was designed for a range of audiences, including solicitors, barristers, brain injury case managers, therapists, teachers and social workers, as well as insurers, lecturers, family members and psychologists.
For more information about trust-ed, log on to www.trust-ed.org
Adopt policies or face the consequences
A landmark ruling in an industrial tribunal that made national headlines should serve as a warning to employers across the region.
Anna Coulombeau, a former employee of Enterprise Rent-A-Car (UK) Ltd won her unfair dismissal case against the company - a dismissal which was unfair as it was deemed to have taken place due to Ms Coulombeau’s expressed intention to take adoption leave.
It is thought that this was the first time in the UK that a tribunal has given judgment in favour of a claimant regarding a case of unfair dismissal directly related to adoption leave. The hearing also deemed that the claimant had been subjected to sex discrimination during her employment.
Roscoe Fernandes, a senior solicitor at Freeth Cartwright LLP who advised Anna Coulombeau throughout the case, has said that this case should act as a warning for companies. He commented: “this was an interesting case in itself and very important for the individual concerned. But it highlights a number of issues of which companies should be aware.”
For more information contact David Potter on 0115 936 9369.
Freeth Cartwright helps steer logistics firm to NEW HQ
Commercial property specialist Jon Smart has helped steer a logistics firm to new headquarters in the East Midlands. CEVA Logistics, formerly TNT Logistics, has moved to a new UK head office at the Ashby Business Park, Ashby de la Zouch. The company’s Atherstone employees have relocated to Ashby, and its Nuneaton team will transfer in March 2008, 300 people will be based at the new site.
Jon Smart, who also advises CEVA on warehouse opportunities across the country, commented: “We are delighted to have supported CEVA through its relocation to the East Midlands. As well as being positive news for the company and its workforce, this move also highlights the wealth of property opportunities available throughout this region.
CEVA’s new HQ, adjacent to junction 13 of the A42(M), has been branded CEVA and will be known as CEVA House. Neil Crossthwaite, Managing Director of CEVA Logistics in the UK, said: “The relocation to our new head office is a key milestone in our history, and represents a new chapter in the exciting world of CEVA. The building is extremely well located for all major road networks and has excellent facilities covering 2,452 square metres of newly-furnished office space.
Speak to us today and find out what we can do for your business.
For further information, please contact:
Philippa Dempster, Partner
Direct line: 0115 936 9334
Direct fax: 0115 859 9612