North West law firm Napthens has added 35 people to its team including Ben Sears who will lead its digital transformation programme. Tony McDonough reports

Law firm Napthens has added 35 people to its North West team in the first half of 2022.

New appointments include director of strategy and development Ben Sears. He will lead the digital transformation of the firm. Ben has a background in software engineering, having led global development teams for international data science companies such as Experian.

In an interview with LBN in June, Napthens’ Wirral-born chief executive Alex Hatchman said her ambition was to create a “Tesla law firm”. She added: “I want it to be an intelligent vehicle and use technology to better deliver our services to our customers.

Headquartered in Preston, Napthens has offices in Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Kendal, Blackburn, Lytham and Southport. It employs around 300 people, 40 of whom are based in the Plaza in Liverpool.

Ben Sears specialises in the development of software products, particularly those involving deep analytics, data science and artificial intelligence.

Alex added: “We’ve seen an exceptional intake of talent over the first half of the year, with key hires made across our legal and non-legal teams. We continue to add expertise to our thriving core practice areas, whilst additions such as Ben Sears will enable us to drive and transform our business.”

Elsewhere, senior associate solicitor Jennifer Rogers brings more than 10 years’ experience to the firm’s litigation practice. Joining from Weightmans where she primarily focused on property litigation and housing management, she will be based at its Liverpool office.

Napthens’ residential conveyancing team has seen the most activity over the past six months. It has welcomed 11 new additions, including five conveyancing executives, five legal assistants and a post completions assistant.

Other notable additions include employee relation advisors Helena Newberry and Jade McEvoy. And five new legal assistants join the commercial property, employment, wills and estate planning and rural teams.

The recruitment drive comes amid several other senior appointments. Alex Hatchman joined in February. Head of Liverpool and partner Kieran Donovan and non-executive chairman Jonathan Fox also joined in the first half of the year.

Kieran Donovan said: “There’s a wealth of expertise in the Liverpool market. Additions such as Jennifer Rogers are testament to the calibre of talent we have here.”