Expanding national law firm Bevan Brittan has announced its second senior hire so far in 2022 with the recruitment of a leading national practitioner in public & regulatory law.
Melanie Carter, a Band 1 leader in public & regulatory law, joins from Bates Wells, bringing more than 25 years of experience advising public sector organisations and businesses to Bevan Brittan’s highly-regarded Public & Administrative Law team. She is also ranked in the directories for information law (in particular Freedom of Information), professional regulation, local government and elections.
The announcement is the latest positive news from the firm, which recently confirmed that it had exceeded £60m in revenue for the first time in 2021/22, its ninth consecutive year of growth, and said it was considering mergers and bolt-ons should the right opportunities arise.
Melanie’s experience is exceptionally broad, acting for a range of public bodies in the governmental field, leading nationally on the audit of local government (with its focus on finance, standards and corporate governance), professional regulators, corporate businesses, political parties and national charities and drafting legislation both domestically and internationally.
She has a particular expertise in judicial review and inquiries and investigations having acted on the Independent Child Sexual Abuse, Grenfell, Infected Blood and the Brook House Inquiries. She is the founder of the Public Law Solicitors’ Association, an international independent adjudicator and Tribunal Judge (Information Rights).
Based in London, but operating across all of Bevan Brittan’s four offices, Melanie adds her experience to the firm’s already well-established clients for central and local government, non-departmental public bodies, financial services, education and health and other bodies of a hybrid nature with public functions.
In late 2021, Bevan Brittan was appointed to the prestigious Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Central Government legal services panel and the firm also sits on the FCA, FSCS, all local government and NHS legal services frameworks across England and Wales.
Duncan Weir, Managing Partner, said: “This is yet another excellent senior appointment for our business and I am delighted to welcome Melanie to Bevan Brittan.
“She is adding vast experience to our existing skillset within our teams and will be able to work across a range of issues and support our clients in both our established and emerging markets, where we continue to see significant growth.
“Melanie’s appointment, along with other partner recruits who have joined before her, shows the calibre of well-established and highly respected solicitors we are attracting to our business. This is not just down to the work we do but how we do it, in a flexible and collaborative way which appeals to both our colleagues and our clients.”
Melanie’s arrival adds to the news in May that procurement, competition law and subsidy control specialist Bethan Lloyd had also joined the firm.
Bevan Brittan also announced in May that it had promoted 10% of its lawyers, with 32 colleagues successful across its four offices, including five new Partners, a new Legal Director, 13 Senior Associates and 13 new Associates.