Muckle announces five new promotions

We continue to reinforce our award-winning team with five promotions, including one partner.

With the North East attracting the highest calibre legal talent and firms working to recruit the best, we believe the key to its success is its emphasis on not just attracting but also retaining the most talented lawyers in order to best serve our client base, which includes Tees Valley Combined Authority, Kitwave and Wilton Universal Group.

The fab five

Stephanie Brown has been promoted to partner, Carolyn McKay and Claire Naughten have become senior associates, and associate positions go to Gillian Scribbins and Sarah Farish.

Corporate lawyer Stephanie Brown is tipped as a ‘Rising Star’ by Legal 500 UK and was named Young Lawyer of the Year at the Insider North East Young Professionals Awards 2022. She specialises in advising businesses on sales and acquisitions, private equity transactions, investments, corporate reorganisations, demergers, and general company law matters.

Carolyn McKay and Claire Naughten have been promoted to senior associates in the firm’s award-winning real estate team, while Sarah Farish and Gillian Scribbins have become associates in the firm’s renowned banking and dispute resolution teams, respectively.

Carolyn specialises in commercial landlord and tenant work, as well as acting for corporate bodies, charities, housing associations and individuals on a range of real estate matters, including portfolio acquisitions, estate management, disposals and property finance matters.

Claire is highly experienced in property transactional work with a particular focus on the real estate aspects of banking transactions. She is known for her transactional work, including secured lending, both lender and borrower, development finance, freehold disposals and acquisitions and advising landlords, tenants and investors on all aspects of landlord/tenant relationships.

Sarah’s main experience is in the insolvency and restructuring sector, in which she has impressively built up a reputation as an insolvency expert in both contentious and non-contentious work. Her work was recognised by Legal 500 UK, with the independent legal directory naming her as a 'Recommended Lawyer’ in its 2024 edition.

Gillian worked in journalism, television, and in-house legal before joining the firm and is consistently recognised by clients for her commercial approach to dispute resolution. Gillian has advised some of the firm’s biggest clients on contractual, data protection, shareholder, intellectual property, construction and regulatory disputes. 

Investing in people

Jason Wainwright, managing partner at Muckle LLP, said: “As a firm, we have a strong commitment to investing in our people, and it’s a pleasure to once again be announcing such a significant list of promotions.

“The promotions reflect the hard work, expertise and enthusiasm these lawyers have shown. Many of them have been with the firm for a number of years, and it’s a privilege to watch them craft their careers with Muckle. 

“We pride ourselves on nurturing talent from within, so recognising the commitment of homegrown talent with reward and development is very important to us at Muckle.

“I look forward to supporting Stephanie, Carolyn, Claire, Sarah and Gillian as they continue on their individual paths as remarkable lawyers.”

Muckle recently became the first law firm in the North East and Cumbria to achieve B Corp accreditation, awarded to businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. The firm was also named Company of the Year and Best Place to Work at the North East Business Awards in 2023.

Check out our careers page for more information about working at Muckle, and see our current vacancies.