Hammonds brings in new management for international arms

Hammonds has overhauled the management of three of its international offices, with Spain, Germany and Paris all gaining new local heads.

In Spain, property partner Rafael Alonso succeeds Francisco Guijarro as local leader. Guijarro, who has been with Hammonds since it opened in Spain in 2003, is retiring from the partnership but will remain with the firm as a consultant. Also in Spain the top 25 UK firm has promoted office and human resources manager Sonia Zunzunegui to the newly-created position of chief operating officer (COO).

In Germany, corporate head Kai Mertens has been appointed to head Hammonds' operations in the region. He will continue to lead the German corporate practice as well as replacing Frank Walter-von Gierke leading the firm's overall efforts in the country.

Walter-von Gierke, who has led the German practice since Hammonds opened in Germany in 2001, has been elected to the firm's limited liability partnership (LLP) board, replacing Spain's Guijarro as one of the elected partner representatives from outside the UK. In addition, Beatrix Bauckhage has been hired from a local company to take up the newly-created post of COO in Germany.

Hammonds' France head, Christian Hausmann, has also stepped down, to be succeeded by Christopher Wilde, a partner in the Paris corporate team.

The changes in local leadership come as UK corporate partner Trevor Ingle departs Hammonds' strategic LLP board after three years, to be replaced by head of asset-based lending Andrew Watson. The LLP board consists of two elected partner representatives from the UK (Watson and Ian Forrest) and two from outside the UK (Wilde and Walter-von Gierke) in addition to finance director Chris West, managing partner Peter Crossley, non-executive chairman Crawford Gillies and non-executive director Louise Fletcher.