gunnercooke appoints new Talent and Marketing Directors to Leadership Team in major growth period for firm’s support team

gunnercooke has appointed a new Talent Director and Marketing & Business Development Director to its Leadership Team in a period of investment into its support structure. The firm’s business services team has seen 30% growth over the past 12 months, now reaching 100 employees and making it one of the largest support teams for a UK fee share firm.

Vanessa Ashworth has joined the marketing team as Marketing & Business Development Director. Vanessa brings 20+ years of B2B marketing leadership experience for global organisations including A-SAFE GROUP, Norican Group and e-surv Chartered Surveyors. Following her marketing mantra of ‘Visible, Credible, Memorable’, Vanessa intends to raise gunnercooke’s international profile to make the brand magnetic to high calibre lawyers and clients around the world.

Vanessa commented: “I’m celebrating finding a company, a culture, and a team who are purpose-led. Whose values are much more than artwork in the canteen. Whose purpose is to deliver a positive impact for clients, provide a better life for their people, and to leave a better world than they found. This is the gunnercooke difference. I’m looking forward to working with the team, particularly on our brand transformation project: sharpening the narrative, elevating the story, and building something bold.”

Syed Nasser joins the firm as Director of Talent, with 20 years’ experience in legal recruitment. A former Barrister, Syed is a well-known in the legal industry having started his career at Fox Rodney Search, before founding his own executive search firm which he ran for five years. He also spent time at Fides Search and ran Partner Hiring at Irwin Mitchell for two years.

Syed will drive the firm’s recruitment strategy with a focus on sourcing specialists in key focus areas for the firm and supporting international growth in the US and Europe. gunnercooke has seen exponential growth in recent years, with numbers now standing at 600 fee earners, including 500 lawyers and 400 partners.  

Syed added: “I joined because of the firm’s clear ambition, not growth for growth’s sake, but thoughtful, strategic expansion built on quality. gunnercooke is scaling internationally with a focus on exceptional legal and professional talent, empowering individuals to build practices that are sustainable, entrepreneurial, and truly client-centred. As Director of Talent, my focus is simple: bring exceptional people into a model that can genuinely change the trajectory of their careers, and in many cases, their lives.”

Vanessa and Syed join gunnercooke’s team of specialists across finance, marketing, IT, compliance and office services, offering all of the support partners need to be able to run their legal practice. With expertise across areas including proposal and bid writing to win new clients, talent acquisition to grow their teams, a dedicated training team, business coaching, PR and branding advice, and event management.

The firm also has a dedicated Partner Services team providing bespoke support for partners, which covers the pastoral side as well as practice growth and building connections with the wider firm to drive cross referrals.

Other recent recruits include Martin Braisby, who joins as Head of Recruitment Marketing, Caleb Sizemore as Bid Manager, and Alice Ratcliffe as Innovation Manager. The firm’s previous Talent Director, Matthew Dashper-Hughes, has moved into a new role as Development Director and will support partners with business development and coaching.

In 2025, key appointments included Rochelle Ripley as Head of AML and Lana Bland as Community Builder for the gunnercooke foundation. Claire Smith joined in the summer as Head of People, a new role dedicated to supporting the team in its growth and delivering a new people strategy and ‘Design your Life’ programme.

The finance team is the firm’s largest and fastest-growing team with 11 recruits in the past 12 months.

To accommodate the rapid expansion, gunnercooke is due to move into new global headquarters in Manchester next month.

gunnercooke now has 16 global offices across the UK, US and DACH region, with 600 advisors and lawyers. Last year the firm moved into an upsized Leeds office, opened an additional London office in the West End, and opened up new offices in Frankfurt and Chicago.