Penningtons welcomes two new partners to London team

Posted: 18/06/2013

Top 100 law firm Penningtons Solicitors LLP is delighted to announce the appointment of two new partners to its London office, bringing the total number of partners at the firm to 67. Gillian Rivers joins as head of family law from Collyer Bristow while Phillip D'Costa becomes a partner in Penningtons' commercial dispute resolution team, having previously been a partner at Davenport Lyons.

Gillian is a highly experienced practitioner advising on all areas of family law, both in the UK and internationally. She has a particular focus on the financial aspects of relationship breakdown as well as private law children matters including contact and residence disputes and financial applications on behalf of children. She also specialises in making emergency applications to freeze assets, recover children and in response to cases of domestic violence.

Described by The Legal 500 as 'excellent', 'never under-prepared' and 'understanding but robust', Gillian is the chair of the Family Law Committee of the International Bar Association. She is also a member of Resolution and a regular contributor to BBC Radio, the Law Society Gazette and national print media. Gillian lectures and chairs seminars nationally and internationally on family law. She is a former contributing editor and author to Clarke, Hall and Morrison's leading publication on children law.

Phillip specialises in commercial, fraud and financial services dispute resolution, arbitration and ADR. His practice has a strong international focus and he has a particular interest in litigation and transactional work involving the UK-India corridor. He is known for his expertise in partnership and LLP, asset finance and leasing disputes and acts for a number of private sector clients including trading, IT and financial services companies as well as for partners or members of LLPs. His recent cases have included successfully representing a leading stage school in an asset finance dispute and obtaining recovery of funds on behalf of a number of jewellery companies following the administration of their buying group. Phillip has spoken at national and international conferences on subjects as diverse as the anti-money laundering regulations and the Indian courts.

He is a member of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers and the Employment Lawyers Association. Phillip is vice chairman of the Indian Maritime Association.

Commenting on these two new appointments, Penningtons' chief executive David Raine said: "The addition of Gillian and Phillip to our London based team adds greater depth to our client offering. Penningtons has traditionally had a strong reputation in family law and we expect this to continue under Gillian's guidance. Phillip's track record complements the expertise of our commercial dispute resolution team, led by Rustam Dubash, as well as our expanding India group. We are looking forward to working with these highly regarded lawyers whose arrival comes shortly after the appointment of Maria Riccio, previously a partner with Bond Pearce, as head of our pensions law team."

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