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In a move demonstrating a clear strategy to deepen relationships in the Midlands' business, financial and entrepreneurial markets, European law firm Fieldfisher has recruited Andy Lawton Smith as a partner and Head of Corporate at Fieldfisher Birmingham.
Andy joins Fieldfisher's 60-strong Birmingham team, which serves clients across the Midlands as well as the wider UK and internationally from its office at Blythe Valley Business Park.
He joins from Gowling WLG, where he was Head of Enterprise with responsibility for supporting the Midlands' privately owned companies and private equity communities.
As well as continuing to support the region's entrepreneurs on their transactions, Andy's role will be to deliver the broader capability of the entire Fieldfisher business to "Midlands PLC". His core target market sectors are technology, manufacturing and business services alongside leisure/retail and healthcare.
Andy has worked in the Birmingham business and professional community since qualifying as a solicitor with Wragge & Co (the predecessor to Gowling WLG) in the 1990s. He honed his entrepreneurship and split his period with the firm for four years during the early 2010s, when he ran a successful data management software company.
Commenting on Andy's appointment, Antony Phillips, Managing Partner at Fieldfisher Birmingham says:
"We are delighted to have recruited Andy, a corporate lawyer and entrepreneur with an outstanding commercial background and a real heavyweight presence in the Midlands business community.
"His joining the firm adds tangible firepower to our Birmingham office, which has gone from strength to strength over the past four years since Fieldfisher merged with leading Midlands firm Hill Hofstetter in 2016.
"I know I speak on behalf of my Midlands colleagues and the wider firm when I say that we are excited to welcome Andy to the business and look forward to working with him on a number of projects we have in the pipeline for 2021."
Birmingham Head of Corporate Andy Lawton Smith adds: "To those in the know, Fieldfisher is the best underground success story in the Midlands' legal market.
"The team has built a fabulous practice supporting businesses around real estate, employment and pensions and dispute resolution, alongside a very experienced and capable corporate and M&A team – thanks in large part to the efforts of Graham Muth, who I am very much looking forward to working with.
"The quality of Fieldfisher's work, the scale and breadth of its client base and the national and international reach of the practice is the equal of anything the Midlands has to offer."
"My association with Gowling WLG has been wonderful – I have genuinely loved my time with the firm. However, I am an entrepreneur at heart and joining the team at Fieldfisher with their ambitious goals for growth is hugely exciting."
About Fieldfisher
Fieldfisher is a European law firm with market leading practices in many of the world's most dynamic sectors. We are an exciting, forward-thinking organisation with a particular focus on energy & natural resources, technology, finance & financial services, life sciences and media.
The Birmingham office is recognised for providing technically excellent legal advice tailored to meet the business needs of our broad range of corporate clients. We are multi service with particular strengths in complex mergers and acquisitions; commercial real estate development, investment and management; bet-the-company litigation, international arbitration and competition damages claims; employment advice and defence work; and health and safety.
Our network has more than 1,550 people working across 25 offices providing highly commercial advice based on an in-depth understanding of our clients' needs.
The firm operates across our offices in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Belfast, Birmingham, Bologna, Brussels, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Turin, Venice and Silicon Valley.