Penningtons appoints three new partners as turnover rises by a third

Posted: 24/04/2012

Top 100 law firm Penningtons Solicitors LLP is pleased to announce the appointment of three new partners as well as a substantial increase in fee income for the 2011-2012 financial year.

Three associates within the firm – Saionton Basu (corporate and India groups), Pat Saini (immigration) and Mike Busby (commercial property) have been invited to join the partnership bringing the total number of partners at the firm to 71.

Saionton Basu jointly heads the India group in Penningtons’ City office with Rustam Dubash. He is an experienced mergers, acquisitions and projects lawyer with a particular focus on cross-border transactions as well as projects focusing on Public Private Partnerships (PPP). He advises international clients who are active or seek to be active in India, including banks, corporations and financial institutions as well as Indian companies doing business in the UK and Europe. Saionton was previously the law clerk to the Chief Justice of India, V N Khare, and featured in the up and coming Indian lawyers under 35 list in the India Report 2010 of a leading industry publication.

Pat Saini manages the case work team within Penningtons' market leading immigration practice. Based in the firm’s City office, she has over 15 years of experience practising in immigration and nationality law and currently advises education and corporate clients on sponsor compliance matters. She acts for Tier 4 sponsors in relation to UKBA changes, HTS applications and the immigration aspects of joint ventures, and often liaises with senior UKBA officials on behalf of clients to ensure that their proposed business plans meet UKBA requirements. She was recently involved in English UK's groundbreaking High Court judicial review which resulted in education providers with a Tier 4 sponsor licence once again being able to offer English language courses at A2 level.

Mike Busby, who originally joined Penningtons as a trainee and now works out of the firm’s newly opened Guildford office, acts for a wide range of organisations across the commercial property spectrum, specialising in landlord and tenant issues. He regularly advises on sales and purchases of all types of developments and is part of the firm’s hotels and leisure sector group. He also has experience in property finance and has recently advised on a £100 million plus transaction. Mike provides support to Penningtons’ company and commercial teams in relation to the property aspects of business and share sales.

The appointments have taken effect in the same week as Penningtons has confirmed that its turnover for 2011-12 has exceeded £32.3 million, representing an increase of nearly 35% over the previous financial year, when turnover was £24 million.

David Raine, Penningtons’ chief executive, commented: "This is an excellent performance which reflects our underlying organic growth as well as the success of last year’s mergers with Dawsons and Wedlake Saint. We have a strong platform for further progression during the next 12 months as we continue to enhance our position across many different segments of the legal market place."

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