Peter Manford joins Aaron & Partners

The commercial contract expert joins the Shrewsbury-based corporate and commercial team as a partner

Peter Manford brings a wealth of experience to the corporate and commercial team at Aaron & Partners. As a partner, Peter will be based in Shrewsbury working with clients primarily in Shropshire and the Midlands.

He said: “Aaron & Partners is a firm I knew a lot about and when I spoke to some of the other partners here, I knew it was somewhere I wanted to be.”

Peter spent 10 years plying his trade at world-renowned law firm Eversheds Sutherland where he specialised in logistics and transport. He was trusted to lead a team of 10 other lawyers on commercial contract work.

Peter is also no stranger to the IT and telecoms industries, working on behalf of many schools, universities and colleges across a wide range of cases. He is also extremely well versed in the franchise world, being the first UK lawyer to become a Qualified Franchise Professional (QFP).

After a successful period at Eversheds, Peter joined Shakespeare Martineau in Birmingham where he was named head of commercial, heading a team of 14 other lawyers.

He oversaw a billion-dollar deal during his time as commercial director of Sauflon Pharmaceuticals, helping the sale of the company (one of the largest contact lens producers in the world) to Californian firm CooperVision.

Asked about his esteemed career, Peter admitted it had provided “wonderful opportunities to experience many different aspects of the law”. But he pointed to his MBA qualification to show he understood that the commercial aspects were what mattered most.

He said: “As lawyers, we are facilitators of an important process and by being commercially focused, we can help ensure the very best outcomes for our business owner clients and their managers.”

Senior partner at the Shrewsbury office, Stuart Haynes, said: “We’ve found a highly experienced lawyer in Peter and it’s fantastic to welcome him to our team.”

And Peter is certainly not wasting any time with Stuart stating that he was already involved in a wide range of work supporting their clients.