Two New Partners for Brabners' Growing Manchester Team

Growth continues with increasing pace for our firm with the appointment of two new partners, Stephen Hadlow and Piers Dryden, to our corporate team based in the Manchester office.

As well as further strengthening our leading corporate practice, the appointments add to our already significant expertise in the tech sector.

Stephen has more than 20 years’ experience in the North West advising UK corporates and high-growth tech firms on strategic transactions and mergers and acquisitions. He also advises on corporate disposals to employee ownership trusts, a growing trend in exit strategies for business owners. He joins from Knights plc, having previously held partner roles at Turner Parkinson and JMW.

Piers’ appointment marks the establishment of our new FinTech regulatory practice, covering a broad range of FinTech sub-sectors. Having worked at firms including Slaughter & May, Debevoise & Plimpton and Ogier, Piers advises on a broad range of FinTech matters, including: blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) utilisation; digital asset issuances; alternative payments services; and smart and automated contract implementation for businesses. He also has extensive experience of corporate advisory matters as well as investment fund formation and maintenance.

Managing partner Nik White, said: “Growing the practice based in our Manchester office is one of our key strategic objectives, which has seen us increase the size of our partnership in the city by more than 60% since the start of the last financial year.

“Growth in Manchester’s FinTech sector in particular continues to outpace all other parts of the UK, so it’s imperative that we build on our offering to further support those high-growth businesses operating out of the city region, as well as further afield. Piers’ experience in particular opens up whole new practice areas for us in what we believe will be a truly unique offering in the North West and with national reach.”

The appointments come after we were ranked top in the Legal 500 table of North West law firms, secured three rankings in the Times’ Best Law Firms 2020 and announced another year of sustainable profit and revenue growth.

We generated turnover of £33.6million in the year to the end of April 2019, up from £33.1million the previous year, and invested over £1.8million to boost growth as part of its three year change programme.