Appointments: Lawyers move up to partnership

Jonathan Scarsbrook of the firm's market-leading volume legal services division, asbestos-related disease expert Helen Ashton and medical law specialist Tom Mather have all been promoted to partnerships at the firms Sheffield office. Employment expert Glenn Hayes from the firm's business and private client section is one of two associates to make the move up to partner in the firm's Leeds office, along with personal injury lawyer Carolyn Heaton, who specialises in acting for people with acquired brain and spinal cord damage.

Law firm Hammonds is expanding its real estate team in Leeds with the appointment of a new partner.

John Leake was the former head of real estate at Addleshaw Goddard in Leeds. He was at Booth & Co, which became Addleshaw Goddard for more than 23 years, including 20 as a partner. His real estate experience has a particular emphasis on development and regeneration work, principally in Yorkshire and the North.

Mr Leake left Addleshaw Goddard in 2009 and joined GMI Property Holdings as a consultant, where for 12 months he managed the company's major development projects before joining Hammonds.

A head of business development has been created by Yorkshire Bank to support businesses in its East region, which stretches from Newcastle to Norwich. He is Darren Owers, who will work out of Yorkshire Bank's Leeds Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) to lead business development activity.

His appointment follows the launch of Yorkshire Bank's Investing for Growth initiative, which aims to help companies grow as the economy emerges from recession.

Law firm Ward Hadaway has a newly promoted partner at its Leeds office. Laura Harper joined the firm in March 2009 as an associate in the intellectual property team. Her promotion to partner comes after her work to establish and lead Ward Hadaway's creative industries team, which provides legal advice to organisations and individuals in the creative and digital sectors. Her clients include international artists, games and technology companies and advertising and design agencies.

She is one of six lawyers to be promoted at Ward Hadaway, which also has an office in Newcastle.

Leeds legal firm Clarion has appointed Daniel Carlton as manager in its debt recovery team.

He has more than 20 years' experience advising and developing debt collection and credit control services for a variety of clients from sole traders to PLCs. Over the last 10 years, he has specialised in advising the leisure industry and has worked with some of the major pub groups developing specialist debt recovery systems for the commercial landlord.