Bevan Brittan strengthens higher education team with Soundy hire

Law firm Bevan Brittan has bolstered its higher education practice with the appointment of Rachel Soundy as a new corporate partner.

Soundy, who joins from Eversheds Sutherland, will be based in Bevan Brittan’s Birmingham office.

She specialises in advising education institutions on mergers and acquisitions, joint venture arrangements, corporate structures, and constitutional and governance matters.

Bevan Brittan recently secured a position on the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) framework. The firm said this would enable it “to provide legal services to the wider higher education sector across the UK, where the firm already offers pragmatic legal advice to a growing number of universities and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)”.

Ashley Norman, Partner and joint Head of the firm’s Higher Education Team, said: “Rachel’s appointment comes at a very exciting time for Bevan Brittan, when we are seeing excellent growth in our work with clients in the higher education sector. Being part of the LUPC framework will bring many exciting prospects and it is therefore great timing for us to enlist Rachel’s help and support on maximising these opportunities.

“We welcome Rachel to the team and look forward to tapping into her extensive sector knowledge and leveraging this across our national higher education client base.”

Duncan Weir, Managing Partner at Bevan Brittan, said: “As a firm we are continuing to focus and invest in particular emerging markets and by bringing in Rachel, and her wealth of Higher Education expertise, we will be able to support a broad service offering and help our clients navigate their way through the next and future academic years.”