Stone King, the national law firm with an office in Bath, has opened a base in Birmingham following a year spent recruiting and building its presence in the West Midlands.
The city centre office is a key step in the firm’s strategy of providing national education expertise on a local basis.
Education is one of the firm’s key sectors alongside charity and social enterprise, business and private client. The Birmingham office, pictured, is its fifth – as well as Bath it also has bases in Cambridge, London and Leeds, which opened two years ago.
The initial focus of the new office will be on schools in Birmingham and West Midlands region.
Stone King chairman Ann Phillips said the move into Birmingham showed the firm’s commitment to the West Midlands region.
“I am also very pleased to welcome our latest recruits, who are well-known experts in their field in the area and will be a real asset to the firm. Our initial focus is to grow our leading education sector services, building on the work we do with more than 800 schools, academies and multi-academy trusts across the country.”
Stone King, which employs more than 240 people across its offices, began its move into Birmingham last year with the appointment of senior associate and employment law expert Surinder Dhillon – who launched a BAME Headteachers and Senior Leaders Forum in the city in February – and senior HR consultant Baljinder Nizzer.
So far this year the firm has also recruited senior associates Esther Maxwell and Charlotte Melhuish to its education team from Harrison Clark Rickerbys, and Amrick Saggu, a consultant in the commercial property team, who joined from Birmingham City Council, among other appointments.
To mark the opening of the new office, the firm held reception drinks at Birmingham’s stylish Malmaison hotel, welcoming more than 30 key members of the city’s education sector, including school leaders and business managers, as well as representatives of the city’s business community.
